ing together his scattered
thoughts. "A sort of one; I have taken off, I don't know for how long
it will be, my lieutenant's uniform, and mounted the high jack-boots;
but I am bored by the one as much as by the other." He took his
nail-cleaner out of his pocket, and worked away industriously at his
nails; then with his pocket-brush he smoothed down again his carefully
parted but thin hair, occasionally looking up to his companion
opposite.

The two, sitting there for a little while without speaking, sharply
inspected each other. Two awkward people, who are placed in a position
of helpless antagonism, become mutually embarrassed; two clever people,
who know each other's cleverness, are like two fencers, who, familiar
with each other's ward and pass, will not risk a stroke or thrust.
Pranken bent over his glass, inhaled the bouquet of the wine, and said,
at length, half smiling, "Perhaps you will now abandon your late
Communistic views."

"Communistic! I had no idea that you, like so many others, cover up
everything unpleasant with that convenient formula of excommunication,
'Communism.' I should like to be a Communist. I mean that I should like
to see in Communism a form of organization adapted to the wants of
society, which it is not, and never can be. We must take some other
method than this, to get rid of the existing barbarism which compels
our fellow human beings to be without the most common necessities of
life. It is a bitter drop in my glass, that, while I can here at
leisure drink this mountain-wine, yonder are poor hard-driven laborers
who can never taste of it."

"To-day is a holiday, and no one labors then," said Pranken, with a
laugh. Already, in this first meeting, the contrast of these two young
men was plainly to be seen. Eric also laughed at this unexpected turn
from his comrade; but he was mature enough not to make a personal
matter out of a difference of theory. He therefore came back to neutral
ground, and the conversation flowed on quietly in recollections of the
past, and thoughts of the future.

In their carriage and gait, the military training of the two young men
was plainly to be seen; but in Eric the stiffness was tempered by a
sort of artistic grace. Pranken was elegant, Eric noble and refined;
every tone and movement of Pranken bespoke attention; but his demeanor
had that cool insolence, or--if that is too harsh a word--impertinence,
which regards every one outside of one's circle as non