In any case there would have been an end to that, as the order to start for the practice-camp had already been issued.
Reimers learnt from his comrades that Frau von Gropphusen appeared no more at the tennis club. It was said that she was not well and was going away to some watering-place or other. There was much chuckling over the news. "There has been a split," opined the gossips.
Reimers did not care. He knew better.
But the quartette at the supper-table in Waisenhaus Strasse did not seem displeased with the way in which things had turned out.
Formerly, if he came late to supper, and excused himself on the plea of having been detained at tennis, there had been a fatal air of constraint, which would only gradually wear off; sometimes even lasting the whole evening.
Now they received him at once with their old cordiality; they did not believe in his sprain, taking it to be but a convenient pretext. He made as much of it as he could. He showed the swelling; but, to be sure, it had nearly gone down, and he still was not believed.
Finally, an amazing thing happened. Frau Kläre had been taking a turn in the garden one evening with Marie Falkenhein, when she was called in to her baby. On his way out, Reimers encountered the colonel's daughter alone. He said good-night to her politely.
The young girl looked him full in the face with her clear grey eyes, and said: "I am very glad, Lieutenant Reimers, that you have put an end to that hateful gossip. It distressed me, on Frau von Gropphusen's account, and also on yours, to have to hear horrid things said, and not to be able to contradict them."
Reimers bowed and withdrew, in his astonishment forgetting to take leave of Frau Kläre. Marie Falkenhein had spoken so warmly and heartily, had looked at him so kindly and honestly, that he felt quite overcome.
It struck him that the man who should win this maiden for his bride would find through her an assured and tranquil happiness; there was a sense of security in her steady gaze. Yet behind the clear placid eyes of the young girl he saw the sorrowful orbs of the unhappy woman he loved. He saw the heavy tears coursing down her white cheeks, as she stood motionless in the fleeting gleam of the lightning ere she vanished in the darkness of night.