honor of an officer, and hence merited
reprimand or punishment at the hands of his second judges.

The captain accepted this new ordeal with the long-suffering patience
which had become habitual to him by this time. The final issue was
still involved in slight doubt, but he felt himself safe in the firm
conviction of his own innocence.

During this whole period of anxiety his domestic hearth had been
almost his sole source of comfort. His family life had always been one
of unalloyed happiness, and his wife, though young and pretty, had
never been fond of that ceaseless round of noisy dissipation which had
been such a feature of the little garrison for years past. So she did
not miss the social pleasures which she now perforce had to deny
herself; for, along with her husband, the ladies of the garrison now
made it their business to cut her whenever she met any of them in the
streets. Nevertheless, Frau Clara had felt this whole time of trial
quite severely. A loving wife is jealous of her husband's reputation
and of the honor due him, and, as for herself, she had been degraded
from being the most popular woman in the regiment to the level of a
social outcast; but her proud soul refused to submit to this
ostracism, and it was no small gratification to her that the wives of
the leading civilians made it a point to visit her at frequent
intervals, and with some ostentation. Meanwhile Lieutenant Bleibtreu,
the ever-faithful, was no less zealous in his attendance.

One evening he again called, but his face was clouded. It was known to
the Koenigs that the unpleasant position into which their steadfast
young friend had fallen by championing his captain's cause weighed
considerably on him, and that he had made efforts for some time to be
transferred somewhere else.

As to the cause of his depressed mood, the lieutenant answered that
his petition for transference had been rejected.

"And what do you mean to do now?" said his late chief, after a while.

"I have handed in my resignation."

For a moment his hosts looked at him in some consternation, but then
Koenig reached out his hand and said to him:

"You have done well. I must confess I pity you from my heart that you
have to leave so fine a profession, and to inure yourself to prosaic
civilian life, with its eternal questions of losses and gains; but I
understand the motives which have induced you to take this step. You,
as a young officer, have seen events in this p