set in he was to return
home. After a few weeks we took a villa just outside the city, and
lived, of course, a very retired life. Eugen saw Italy for the first
time under very sad and depressing circumstances; it was very trying for
him, a mere boy, to sit day after day in a sick room, so I seconded his
request to be allowed to go to Rome for a few weeks, and obtained the
desired permission for him. I ought never to have done so. But I did
not know how great was his inexperience or into what it would lead him."

"Which means that he plunged into frivolous pleasure or dissipation
while his father lay on his death-bed," the Colonel interposed harshly.

"Do not be hard on him. My brother was scarcely twenty years old, and
while he had a loving father, he had a severe one, who had brought him
up with such strictness that this little breath of freedom proved too
much for him. The young German, with no worldly experience whatever, was
enticed into a circle where play ran high, and where, as was afterwards
proven, cheats and gamblers plied their vocation. Eugen in his ignorance
saw nothing of all this; he lost considerable sums, and at last one
night the club was raided by the police. The Italians resisted them and
a scuffle ensued, into which Eugen was drawn. He only defended himself,
but in so doing severely wounded one of the police, and he was arrested
with the others."

The Colonel had listened in silence to Adelheid's agitated recital, but
he showed neither interest nor emotion as he said severely: "And poor
Stahlberg had to live to see his son, whom he imagined a model, come to
this!"

"He never knew it. It was only a momentary seduction, a boy's misstep
through ignorance, which will never be repeated; Eugen has given me his
word of honor for that."

Falkenried laughed out suddenly, such a bitter, mocking laugh, that the
young wife looked at him in alarm.

"His word of honor. Certainly, why not? It is as easy given as broken.
Are you really so credulous that you would take the word of such a boy?"

"Yes, I am, indeed," Adelheid answered earnestly, as she looked
reprovingly into the face of the man whose bitterness she could not
understand. "I know my brother; he is his father's son in spite of
everything and will not break his word."

"It is well for you you can still trust and believe; for me such days
were over long ago," said Falkenried, scowling, but in a milder tone.
"And what happened then?"

"My brothe