asse did not
seem displeased with the way in which things had turned out.

Formerly, if he came late to supper, and excused himself on the plea of
having been detained at tennis, there had been a fatal air of
constraint, which would only gradually wear off; sometimes even lasting
the whole evening.

Now they received him at once with their old cordiality; they did not
believe in his sprain, taking it to be but a convenient pretext. He
made as much of it as he could. He showed the swelling; but, to be
sure, it had nearly gone down, and he still was not believed.

Finally, an amazing thing happened. Frau Klaere had been taking a turn
in the garden one evening with Marie Falkenhein, when she was called in
to her baby. On his way out, Reimers encountered the colonel's daughter
alone. He said good-night to her politely.

The young girl looked him full in the face with her clear grey eyes,
and said: "I am very glad, Lieutenant Reimers, that you have put an end
to that hateful gossip. It distressed me, on Frau von Gropphusen's
account, and also on yours, to have to hear horrid things said, and not
to be able to contradict them."

Reimers bowed and withdrew, in his astonishment forgetting to take
leave of Frau Klaere. Marie Falkenhein had spoken so warmly and
heartily, had looked at him so kindly and honestly, that he felt quite
overcome.

It struck him that the man who should win this maiden for his bride
would find through her an assured and tranquil happiness; there was a
sense of security in her steady gaze. Yet behind the clear placid eyes
of the young girl he saw the sorrowful orbs of the unhappy woman he
loved. He saw the heavy tears coursing down her white cheeks, as she
stood motionless in the fleeting gleam of the lightning ere she
vanished in the darkness of night.

CHAPTER VII

"Now off and away, lads,
With merry sound of horn!"
(_Methfessel._)

The lithographed regimental orders for May 31, the Saturday before
Whitsuntide, contained the following announcement:

"On June 3, at 6.30 A.M., the regiment will be ready in the Waisenhaus
Strasse to march to the practice-camp in the following order: Batteries
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Corps of trumpeters and band.

* * * * * * * * * *

"On no pretext whatever wil