acted under an impulse too strong to resist.
Of their unhappy married life she said nothing.

Thus Leimann was punished doubly. He had been made ridiculous before
the world, and was laughed at behind his back by all those who
belonged to his extensive circle of acquaintances. And Borgert's
flight had precipitated Leimann's own financial downfall. His
creditors and those of Borgert obtained orders in court which forced
him to sell the larger part of his small private fortune, consisting
of sound investments, to satisfy their claims. A goodly proportion of
his enforced payments was for those sums guaranteed by him in
Borgert's behalf. When all his affairs had been unravelled, he had but
a very small sum remaining to him.

Meanwhile no trace of Frau Leimann and of her companion was found,
although detectives of various countries were several times on their
tracks. Nobody knew where they had found a refuge.

* * * * *

A fortnight after his desertion poor Roese was discovered and arrested.
He had been seized at the Belgian frontier. A court-martial was
quickly summoned, and during the trial it became apparent that the
motive which alone had driven him to desertion had been the brutal
maltreatment to which his master, Borgert, had subjected him. The
court regarded that, however, as a mitigating circumstance of such
slight value that it reduced the measure of the punishment meted out
to him in only a small degree. The poor fellow was universally
commiserated by high and low, and even among the officers a voice was
raised now and then in exculpation. Many of their subordinates
expressed privately the opinion that a poor soldier, even if only the
son of an humble peasant, like Roese, ought to have some rights, and
that he ought to be treated humanely by his superiors. But these were
but private opinions, stated in a barely audible voice, and in the
seclusion of the men's own quarters. As such, naturally, they had not
the slightest value in changing the fortunes of poor Roese, who was
sentenced to undergo a term of many years of hard labor in a military
penitentiary.

* * * * *

At the divorce trial, which took place at Leimann's instance, a great
many unpalatable facts were brought to light.

The two servant-maids in his house, as well as the orderly, gave
testimony of such a character that the few remaining hairs on
Leimann's pear-shaped skull rose in af