of, except Von
Rosenau, who has had an affair, they say, only he is pleased to be very
mysterious about it."

"Where does she live, Von Rosenau?" asked another. "Is she rich? Is she
noble? Has she a husband, who will stab you both? or only a mother, who
will send her to a nunnery, and let you go free? You might gratify
our curiosity a little. It would do you no harm, and it would give us
something to talk about."

"Bah! he will tell you nothing," cried a third. "He is afraid. He knows
that there are half a dozen of us who could cut him out in an hour."

"Von Rosenau," said a young ensign, solemnly, "you would do better to
make a clean breast of it. Concealment is useless. Janovicz saw you with
her in Santa Maria della Salute the other day, and could have followed
her home quite easily if he had been so inclined."

"They were seen together on the Lido, too. People who want to keep their
secrets ought not to be so imprudent."

"A good comrade ought to have no secrets from the regiment."

"Come, Von Rosenau, we will promise not to speak to her without
your permission if you will tell us how you managed to make her
acquaintance."

The object of all these attacks received them with the most perfect
composure, continuing to smoke his cigar and gaze out seaward,
without so much as turning his head toward his questioners, to whom he
vouchsafed no reply whatever. Probably, as an ex-hussar and a sprig of
nobility, he may have held his head a little above those of his present
brother officers, and preferred disregarding their familiarity to
resenting it, as he might have done if it had come from men whom he
considered on a footing of equality with himself. Such, at least, was my
impression; and it was confirmed by the friendly advances which he made
toward me, from that day forth, and by the persistence with which he
sought my society. I thought he seemed to wish for some companion whose
ideas had not been developed exclusively in barrack atmosphere; and
I, on my side, was not unwilling to listen to the chatter of a lively,
good-natured young fellow, at intervals, during my long idle days.

It was at the end of a week, I think, or thereabouts, that he honoured
me with his full confidence. We had been sea-fishing in a small open
boat which he had purchased, and which he managed without assistance;
that is to say, that we had provided ourselves with what was requisite
for the pursuit of that engrossing sport, and that the y