of the day had been read, the half-demoralised crew
dispersed themselves through the town. They stood at the doors of
houses, clasping servant-maids round the waist. When a superior officer
passed by they assumed the regulation attitude slowly and carelessly,
and the officers and non-commissioned officers took pains not to see
the incipient insubordination. Rebellious phrases passed from mouth to
mouth, and many a one boasted how he would thrash this or that corporal
or sergeant--when once he was in civilian dress.

"When once one is in civilian dress"--that seemed to be the noisy
pass-word given out for the evening. It was as though these swaggering
men could no longer endure the last hardly perceptible signs of the
discipline to which they had so long obediently submitted; as though
this evening would end in open mutiny.

Wolf took no part in these noisy demonstrations; he was perhaps the
only reservist in the whole regiment who held aloof. He could not
stand the noise and the drunkenness. The whole of that free afternoon
he stayed in the barrack-room, dreaming away comfortably, and
looking at the first-year men, who now, when the "old gang" had left,
would suddenly have about twice as much to do as hitherto. If a
non-commissioned officer crossed the threshold, he jumped up and stood
at attention, quickly and accurately, just as he had done at any time
during these last two years. Why not still continue to play the comedy
for these few remaining hours, after having been an actor so long?

With almost affectionate zeal he cleaned and polished the accoutrements
he had to hand over; and he had the satisfaction of having his kit held
up as an example by Sergeant Keyser, his former enemy, to others who
gave in things insufficiently cleaned. The sergeant, it is true,
promptly ceased his praises when, seeing the name marked on the various
articles, he realised who the exemplary gunner was; however, that was
no matter.

After the orders of the day had been read, Wolf walked restlessly up
and down the courtyard of the barracks. Would this day never end?
The sun had set behind the heights in the west some time since,
but a dull glow still overspread that part of the sky. He quitted the
barracks by the back gate and walked round the great quadrangle of the
drill-ground. The vast space had been freshly strewn with that fine
coke refuse which, in the wet seasons of the year, works up into such
an ugly black slush. In an absent