ence, could hear that.

"I think we are about passing Kaiserswerth," said he. "I wonder where we
shall land at last."

"Do you think we shall go very far?"

"Perhaps we may. It is on record that the Elberthal boat bridge--part of
it, I mean--once turned up at Rotterdam. It may happen again, _warum
nicht_?"

"How long does that take?"

"Twelve or fourteen hours, I dare say."

I was silent.

"I am sorry for you," he said in the gentlest of voices, as he happed my
shawl more closely around me. "And you are cold too--shivering. My coat
must do duty again."

"No, no!" cried I. "Keep it! I won't have it."

"Yes you will, because you can't help it if I make you," he answered as
he wrapped it round me.

"Well, please take part of it. At least wrap half of it round you," I
implored, "or I shall be miserable."

"Pray don't. No, keep it! It is not like charity--it has not room for
many sins at once."

"Do you mean you or me?" I could not help asking.

"Are we not all sinners?"

I knew it would be futile to resist, but I was not happy in the new
arrangement, and I touched his coat-sleeve timidly.

"You have quite a thin coat," I remonstrated, "and I have a winter
dress, a thick jacket, and a shawl."

"And my coat, _und doch bist du_--oh, pardon! and you are shivering in
spite of it," said he, conclusively.

"It is an awful storm, is it not?" I suggested next.

"Was an awful storm, _nicht wahr_? Yes. And how very strange that you
and I, of all people, should have met here, of all places. How did you
get here?"

"I had been to church."

"So! I had not."

"How did you come here?" I ventured to ask.

"Yes--you may well ask; but first--you have been in England, have you
not?"

"Yes, and am going back again."

"Well--I came here yesterday from Berlin. When the war was over--"

"Ah, you were in the war?" I gasped.

"_Natuerlich, mein Fraeulein._ Where else should I have been?"

"And you fought?"

"Also _natuerlich_."

"Where did you fight? At Sedan?"

"At Sedan--yes."

"Oh, my God!" I whispered to myself. "And were you wounded?" I added
aloud.

"A mere trifle. Friedhelm and I had luck to march side by side. I
learned to know in spirit and in letter the meaning of _Ich hatt' einen
guten Cameraden_."

"You were wounded!" I repeated, unheeding all that discursiveness.
"Where? How? Were you in the hospital?"

"Yes. Oh, it is nothing. Since then I have been learning my true place
in the world,