t glow of enthusiasm was over, his spirits had once more
become so gloomy that he would have given a great deal to escape from
the festivities of the evening. But he had promised Schnetz a whole
day, and he had too often been under obligations to his friend, in the
hard days of trial that winter, not to grant him this small favor.

"Of course I will let you off from all ceremonial visits," said his
friend, as they left the garden arm-in-arm. "But we really must go and
pay our respects to the invalids, and afterward shake hands with Fat
Rossel. He would never forgive you if you didn't think it worth while
to congratulate him in his new state; and, besides, it is all up with
your _incognito_. At the window from which our friend Rossel viewed the
spectacle sat another individual, who once upon a time took a great
fancy to your worthy self, and who, notwithstanding the fact that her
grandpapa and husband stood behind her, gave vent to her patriotic
enthusiasm in the most unrestrained manner possible, throwing all the
flowers in her basket at you at one go. But, of course you, like Hans
the Dreamer, rode past your happiness all unconscious of it."

"What, Red Zenz? And she recognized me?"

"In spite of your uniform and short-cropped hair. But you must accustom
yourself to a more respectful way of speaking of her. One speaks now of
Frau Crescentia Rossel, _nee_ Schoepf. They wrote me about this affair
a good while ago; but as you refused, once for all, to listen to any
news about Munich matters, I kept this event from you also. It must
have come about curiously enough, and quite after the manner of the
creature as she was then--I mean, before she had been tamed by the yoke
of wedlock. You know--or don't you know yet?--that Rossel lost his
whole fortune some time ago. He had invested it with his brother, who
was at the head of a mercantile firm in the Palatinate, carrying on a
brisk trade with France. This brother became a bankrupt in consequence
of the war, and our Fat Rossel would have become a miserably poor devil
overnight if he had not owned the house in the city and the villa out
there on the lake. He immediately sold the house with all its
appurtenances, of course at a low enough figure, for no one had much
money to spare in war time. But for all that it was such a good round
sum, that the interest from it just succeeded in keeping his head above
water, though he could no longer live like a _grand seigneur_. A
purchas