st then to the Austrian man[oe]uvres. Guentz was put in charge of
the sixth battery; and the affair had a perfectly natural appearance,
since the command properly fell to the senior-lieutenant of the
regiment.

Guentz had no idea of his wife's little intrigue. He assumed his new
position with fresh courage, and it seemed to please him; but
nevertheless he did not regain his former happy balance.

Something still troubled him; and the young wife, pleased as she was at
her successful assumption of the good fairy's part, was again at her
wits' end to discover the cause.

The fact was that Guentz felt himself daily less and less satisfied with
an officer's career, and he almost began to believe that he had missed
his vocation. It was very hard to realise this only after he had
devoted the twelve best years of his life to soldiering. But he did not
think it was yet too late to make a decisive change, and he was
earnestly elaborating a plan to send in his resignation and devote all
his time to mastering the technique of engineering, his former
favourite study.

He now determined to command the battery for a year, and then to decide
definitely whether to adopt this course or no.

On August 15 he took over the command of the sixth battery. He felt
easier in the more congenial atmosphere of his new department; yet his
full zest for a soldier's life did not return.

Wegstetten's battery seemed to be in excellent order; the only
exception being Lieutenant Landsberg. That young man had positively
raved with joy when Wegstetten's temporary absence was announced.
The captain's hand had pressed heavily on him, and Landsberg thought
that now he would be able to live his life more as he pleased.
Senior-lieutenant Guentz, who was to be in command, was after all
virtually his equal, and it was quite impossible that he should be as
strict about duty as the full-blown captain of a battery.

So he at once began to behave with a self-satisfied independence which
under Wegstetten's rule would have been regarded simply as high
treason. He did not appear punctually on parade, and sometimes he would
remain away altogether, even when it was his week to be on duty.

But Guentz shook off his doubts and depression of spirits, and said to
Reimers:

"Look here, my boy, I shall have to make that Landsberg eat
humble-pie; there's more than one way of doing it. The worst of it is,
though, that the fellow is not an exception, but just a repres