world!" exclaimed Fritz with enthusiasm.
"But, you will see her--some day," he added after a pause. "I vow that
you shall."

"I don't know how that will be," said Madaleine, half laughing in a
constrained fashion, as if wishing to conceal her real feelings. "In a
week or two you will be off to the wars again and forget me--like a true
soldier!"

"Stay," interposed Fritz, interrupting her. "You have no right to say
that! Do you think me so ungrateful? You must have a very bad opinion
of me! I--"

"Never mind explanations now," interrupted the girl in her turn,
speaking hurriedly in a nervous way, although trying to laugh the matter
off as a joke. "If the doctor says you can soon report yourself as fit
for duty, of course you'll have to rejoin your regiment."

"Ah, I wonder where that is now?" said Fritz musingly. "Since our camp
round Metz is broken up, the army will naturally march on farther into
the interior. No matter, there's no good my worrying myself about it.
They'll soon let me know where I've got to go to join them; for, the
powers that be do not allow any shirking of duty in the ranks, from the
highest to the lowest!"

"I saw that here," remarked Madaleine. "The baroness wanted to get her
son to return home with her; but she was told that, if he were allowed
to go he could never come back to the army, as his reputation for
courage would be settled for ever."

"Yes, that would be the case, true enough. Hev would be thought to have
shown the white feather! But, about your movements, Fraulein
Madaleine--the baroness is not going to remain here long, is she?"

"No; she spoke this morning about going away. She said that, as the
siege of Metz was raised, and the greater portion of the wounded men
would be removed to Germany, along with the prisoners of war, she
thought she would go back home--to Darmstadt, that is."

"And there you will stop, I suppose?" asked Fritz.

"Until she has a whim to go somewhere else!" replied Madaleine.

"May I write to you there?"

"I will be glad to hear of your welfare," answered she discreetly, a
slight colour mantling to her cheeks. "Of course, you have been my
patient; and, like a good nurse, I should like to know that you were
getting on well, without any relapse."

"I will write to you, then," said Fritz in those firm, ringing tones of
his that clearly intimated he had made a promise which he intended to
keep. "And you, I hope, will answer my letters?