and how some penniless
Graf may become hopelessly involved in an affair with one of them.
Officially such things are frowned on. Talking of officers' troubles one
day, F---- told me that suicide was often the _only_ possible solution,
and for the honour of one's regiment one was sometimes expected to end
one's life. An acquaintance of his had had a revolver sent him by his
commanding officer as a gentle hint, on finding himself involved in a
scandalous affair.

In one Bavarian regiment, if you had debts, you were liable to be
summoned at literally a moment's notice before your Colonel, and ordered
to pay your debts in so many days, or leave the regiment. The usual
thing was then to obtain the hand in marriage of the most attractive
girl you knew with the most attractive bank-account. Sometimes they
disappeared to America. Frau Seebold told us once, while she was singing
in New York one winter, with an Austrian prima donna, that a man applied
at the door for work during a heavy fall of snow. She told him to clear
it away, and then come in for his money. He came, and noticing her
strong accent, asked if she had long left the Fatherland. On her
replying "no," he burst into a flood of German, and told her his pitiful
story, while she made him hot coffee and tried to comfort him. He had
been a lieutenant in a smart regiment, had gotten into trouble through a
brother officer betraying his trust in him, and had had to disappear to
America for the honour of the regiment. The poor fellow put his head on
the kitchen table and sobbed as he told her how he sank lower and lower,
till finally he shovelled snow. He also told her there was a club in New
York where ex-officers who were coachmen, truck drivers, or waiters by
day, could be gentlemen and comrades by night. He said their crests were
carved above their places on the wall, and no one could belong except
those of high birth. All this was years ago, and I have no idea whether
such a place still exists.

When a sudden silence falls on a party in Germany they say, "A
Lieutenant pays his debts." Promotion is very slow, and to arrive at a
decent income takes years. A Bavarian Colonel has only eight thousand
marks a year. The equipment of an officer is very expensive; their
Parade uniforms must always be spotless, and though you may wear tricot
cloth every day, your parade uniform must be of finest broadcloth, and
your sword knots of shining silver though a dash of rain ruins both.