Lazily he looked around him. Thank goodness, the mare was still there,
her head turned towards him, her ears pricked attentively.

And here--close beside him? A woman sat there; a dainty little figure,
dressed in some light silken fabric, on her fashionably-curled golden
hair an enormous straw hat, above which nodded brilliant scarlet
poppies. She sat with her back to him, and was trying to pick out the
longest stalk from a tuft of grass that grew at the edge of the meadow.

Reimers rubbed his eyes. Devil take it all! was he still dreaming? A
subtle odour came wafting from the rustling silk of her attire, a
breath of depravity, as though hailing from the corrupt life of some
big city; a bewildering, insinuating atmosphere, that had of a sudden
overpowered the delicious freshness of hay and pine-trees.

He shut his eyes dizzily. His senses were still somewhat dazed from his
potations; he could not rouse himself to a clear awakening.

The woman turned towards him. A charming, rather bold face bent down
over him, and a pair of hot, eager lips were pressed to his. And
Reimers, after the space of years behind him, was once again in that
mood in which he had of yore committed acts of folly.

A few weeks later Senior-lieutenant Reimers had a consultation with the
surgeon-major, Dr. Andreae.

"What you tell me, doctor," he said at the end, "is very much like a
death-sentence, so far as a man's domestic happiness is concerned. He
must never hope to found a family?"

"No," replied Andreae; "a decent man does not marry under such
circumstances. If he does, he commits a crime, consciously or
unconsciously, not only upon a woman, but upon his children."

"Thank you, doctor." And Reimers would have taken leave, but Andreae
stopped him at the door.

"I beg of you, my dear Reimers," he said, "not to take too tragic a
view of your case. I assure you, many men in like circumstances make
out a very tolerable existence. Among the younger men of the present
generation the average is enormously high, though fortunately most
cases are not so serious as yours. Quite alarmingly high, the average,
to us doctors.

"But after all, life is not entirely concerned with this one relation
to the other sex. Those who find themselves cut off from domestic
happiness in this particular are often most excellent officers. In
peace they can devote themselves entirely to their profession without
other distractions; so that it benefits somewhat,