on't you know the story? And yet it is in everybody's mouth."

"Then tell us, please, because we know not a word of it, and I scent
something fiendishly interesting!" And Borgert rubbed his hands in
anticipation.

"Why, last year the colonel had, with his usual want of tact, insulted
a civilian--a gentleman, you know. The latter sent him a challenge.
Our good colonel began to feel queer, for while he is constantly
doing heroic things with his mouth, he is by no means fond of risking
his skin. So after some talk with her, this Stark woman went to see
the gentleman in question as peacemaker. She told him that the colonel
was really innocent in the whole matter, and that she herself had been
the cause of the trouble, having spread a false report under an
erroneous impression. She managed to tell her yarn with so much
plausibility as entirely to deceive and bamboozle the other party, who
thereupon withdrew his challenge with expressions of his profound
regret. So, you see, she saved the colonel's life, for the civilian is
known as a dead shot. Since then she has the colonel completely in her
power, and no matter what she tells him to do, he executes her orders
like a docile poodle dog,--a fact which we all see illustrated every
day."

"Well, that explains the whole mystery, of course," delightedly
shouted Borgert. "Don't you know any more such stories? For it is
really high time to call a halt. He has manners like a ploughboy's,
and she like a washerwoman's. I'll collect a few more tales of the
sort. It is simply shameful that one must submit to the dictation of
this woman."

"There are rumors that she had peculiar relations with a well-known
nobleman in her younger days; but I know nothing positive, mind you."

"Where in the world did you hear that now?"

"My military servant told me. He happens to hail from the neighborhood
she comes from."

* * * * *

During this delectable interchange of gossip the wife of First
Lieutenant Leimann had listened with gleaming eyes and heightened
color; it seemed wonderfully interesting to her. Captain Koenig, on the
other hand, sucked his cigar thoughtfully, and his wife toyed with the
embroidered border of the table-cover.

"Why so lost in thought, my gracious lady?" Borgert said.

"I was merely wondering what stories you gentlemen might hatch against
_us_," she said with some dignity.

He was about pathetically to disclaim any such fell desi