Wilhelm tried hard to fight against the feeling. After all,
he was the better man of the two, and if human nature alone had been
put in the scale--that is to say, the value both of body and mind--Herr
von Pechlar would have flown up light as a feather. But just now they
did not stand together as man to man, but as the bourgeois second
lieutenant in his plain infantry uniform, against the aristocratic
first lieutenant--the smart hussar, and the first place was not to be
contested.

In Fraulein Malvine's kind heart there lurked a vague feeling that she
must come to Wilhelm's help, and overcoming her natural shyness, she
said to him:

"It must be very hard for you to tear yourself away under the
circumstances."

She was thinking of his attachment to Loulou, which in her innocence
she quite envied.

Oppressed and distracted as his mind was, he found nothing to say but
the banal response:

"When duty calls, fraulein." But while he spoke he was conscious of the
kindness of her manner, and to show her that he was grateful he went
on, "My friend Haber wishes to say good-by to you before he leaves
Berlin. He thinks a great deal of you, and is very happy in having made
your acquaintance."

Malvine threw him a quick glance from her blue eyes and looked down
again.

"What a good thing that I was here when you came," he said softly; "I
might certainly not have seen you but for this chance."

"The fact is, gnadiges Fraulein," he stammered, "our duties demand so
much of our time."

"Is Herr Haber in your regiment?" she asked.

"No; he has remained with our old Fusilier Guards."

"Ah, what a pity! It would have been so nice for you to be side by side
again, as in 1866."

"How much she knows about us," thought Wilhelm, wondering.

"I often think of Uhland's comrades. It must be a great comfort in war
to have a friend by one."

"Happily one makes friends quickly there."

"On that point we are better off than the poor reserve forces,"
remarked Herr von Pechlar, not addressing himself to the speaker, but
to Frau and Fraulein Ellrich. "We regular officers pull together like
old friends in danger and in death, while the others come among us
unknown. I imagine that must be very uncomfortable."

Wilhelm felt that he had no answer to make, and a silence ensued.
Loulou broke it by moving her chair near Wilhelm, and began to chatter
in a cheerful way over the occurrences of the last few days. How
dreadfully sudden all this