probably, than would ever be needed? He was constructing the model of a
carriage in which the quantity of ammunition carried was to be
diminished by one-third; so that the extra weight of the anti-recoil
construction and the steel shield should be more than counterbalanced.

When he was in Berlin he had gone into the details of his invention
with the head of a large Rhenish gun-foundry. This man proposed that
Guentz should send in his resignation and enter the service of the firm
at a handsome salary. Guentz at that time was not prepared to decide in
the matter; but at the close of the interview the manager had said:
"Who knows? perhaps we shall see each other again."

Had the man been right?

In any case, Guentz felt strong enough to make his own way through life.

The servant took his horse from him at the garden gate.

"Well, did it go off all right?" asked Klaere.

The captain answered, "Yes, first-rate." He did not conceal the "but,"
however. The calm good sense of his wife always helped him to test his
own impressions. Klaere was, indeed, a woman whose like was not to be
found in the whole world; a woman who had been created just for him.

She had her own methods in everything. If, at dinner, her husband were
worried with thoughts of the black sheep in his battery, and would keep
introducing such topics at their comfortable board, then she would snub
him quite severely. But when he came to her with his real doubts and
anxieties she was ever ready to comfort and advise him. She knew all
about his plan of testing himself for a year in the command of a
battery; and sometimes she was inclined to advise him to shorten the
period of probation. She was shrewd enough to foresee that within a
year and a day he would have discarded his officer's uniform.

Lieutenant Reimers continued as hitherto to be a welcome guest in the
Guentz household.

He had realised that his frequent visits were in no way a bother to his
friend; and when Frau Klaere, with the amiability of a careful hostess,
considered his little idiosyncrasies of taste, he could but protest
feebly: "Really, dear lady, you spoil me too much! What shall I do if,
for instance, I have to go to the Staff College next year?"

To Guentz he once said, "I must say that in contemplating you and your
wife, one realises what a half-man a bachelor is."

The stout captain laughed good-naturedly.

"Klaere," he shouted to his wife, who was just coming into the room,