ow blind she had been! Now that her perceptions were
sharpened her fondness suddenly disappeared, and nothing remained but a
dim feeling of duty towards him. She would at any rate make good the
wrong she had done to Trautvetter in her foolish adoration for her
husband, and would not conceal the truth from the one-year volunteer.
She said nothing about a new request for money with which Henke had
charged her, but confessed to him instead that all he had already given
her for housekeeping and such-like had been appropriated by her
husband, who had used it to buy himself a gold watch-chain, an extra
sword, and silver spurs.

Trautvetter looked down upon her fair head. She had hung down her
blushing face and would not look up at him.

"I thought as much," he said.

Without raising her eyes she asked: "Then why did you do it?"

Trautvetter hesitated a moment, then he said gently: "I thought I was
doing you a pleasure, Frau Lisbeth."

The young woman looked him full in the face for an instant. Then she
stood up quickly, took her washing-basket, and departed.

Henke had been awaiting her at home anxiously. He had just engaged in a
love-affair with a music-hall singer, who had been entertaining the
country people of the neighbourhood with her ditties during the August
cattle-market season. "Countess Miramara" was a great success on the
boards, for her costume reached upwards and downwards only just as far
as was absolutely necessary; but she repelled the advances of the
farmers, though they jingled persuasively the coin they had received in
exchange for their oxen and pigs. She preferred to distinguish with her
favour the handsome black-bearded trumpeter.

Henke now wanted to show himself a gallant lover. He intended to
present the countess with a bracelet.

"Give me the money!" he cried to Lisbeth when she entered.

"I have none," she replied. "Trautvetter won't give me any more."

Henke tugged at his beard. This was a fatal upset to his calculations.
What would the countess say if he broke his promise?

He began quietly; "Oh, yes, he'll give you some! You must just be a bit
nice to him."

Lisbeth looked surprised. "What do you mean?" she said.

"Well, you women can always manage a man if you only want to, don't you
see? Just be really nice to him. It's all the same to me." And he left
the room, much put out.

His pretty wife shook her head thoughtfully. What had he meant by "a
bit nice"?

Going into the tow