"What fears do you mean?"
"I can't help myself. I am often forced to remember that we've had a bad time before."
"Before when?"
"Before Jena."
Reimers started. The ominous word struck his pride like a lash. He drew himself up stiffly. "Why not before Sedan?"
The other calmly answered: "Sedan? Jena? Perhaps you are right, perhaps I am. No one knows."
After this conversation Güntz avoided such topics with his friend. If Reimers tried to draw him again on the subject, he answered evasively, "I have told you I must fight it out with myself. Until then I don't want to talk at random."
But for all that he grew calmer and more equable. The biting, sarcastic tone he had adopted gradually disappeared; and it almost seemed as if the mood had been merely a survival of his Berlin experience.
At Easter a small event occurred in the little garrison,
During Holy Week Colonel von Falkenhein took a short leave of absence in order to fetch his daughter Marie home from school at Neuchatel. After Easter she was to come out into society.