orderly he was at first cold and just and indifferent: he did not
fuss over trifles. So that his servant knew practically nothing about
him, except just what orders he would give, and how he wanted them
obeyed. That was quite simple. Then the change gradually came.

The orderly was a youth of about twenty-two, of medium height, and well
built. He had strong, heavy limbs, was swarthy, with a soft, black,
young moustache. There was something altogether warm and young about
him. He had firmly marked eyebrows over dark, expressionless eyes, that
seemed never to have thought, only to have received life direct through
his senses, and acted straight from instinct.

Gradually the officer had become aware of his servant's young, vigorous,
unconscious presence about him. He could not get away from the sense of
the youth's person, while he was in attendance. It was like a warm flame
upon the older man's tense, rigid body, that had become almost unliving,
fixed. There was something so free and sen-contained about him, and
something in the young fellow s movement, that made the officer aware
of him. And this irritated the Prussian. He did not choose to be touched
into life by his servant. He might easily have changed his man, but he
did not. He now very rarely looked direct at his orderly, but kept his
face averted, as if to avoid seeing him. And yet as the young soldier
moved unthinking about the apartment, the elder watched him, and would
notice the movement of his strong young shoulders under the blue cloth,
the bend of his neck. And it irritated him. To see the soldier s young,
brown, shapely peasant's hand grasp the loaf or the wine-bottle sent a
Hash of hate or of anger through the elder man's blood. It was not that
the youth was clumsy: it was rather the blind, instinctive sureness
of movement of an unhampered young animal that irritated the officer to
such a degree.

Once, when a bottle of wine had gone over, and the red gushed out on to
the tablecloth, the officer had started up with an oath, and his eyes,
bluey like fire, had held those of the confused youth for a moment.
It was a shock for the young soldier. He felt some-thing sink deeper,
deeper into his soul, where nothing had ever gone before. It left him
rather blank and wondering. Some of his natural completeness in himself
was gone, a little uneasiness took its place. And from that time an
undiscovered feeling had held between the two men.

Henceforward the orde