"It is over, certainly. But what have I gained by it?"
He pointed to his collar. There certainly were only two stars there still.
"No promotion. I am just where I was before. And yet our major has retired. He was obliged to go, poor fellow; every limb was full of rheumatism. Our senior captain was promoted to his place, our second captain into the first captain's place. His place is now empty. I am the senior lieutenant, but there's not a word said about me. It is enough to make a fellow blow his brains out!"
I earnestly begged him not to think of such a thing. He had other duties. With such an amiable consort too!
"True, brother! She really is an angel. I dare not think what that woman has gone through during these bitter times. She was with me everywhere; but for her, perhaps, I should have gone to the bad. Ah, my friend, you don't know what bliss it is when, after going one's rounds through a biting snowstorm, one returns to one's quarters to find there an angel awaiting you with a bowl of steaming-hot punch."
"I do know, for I've tried it."
"The punch never failed. If rum was to be had for money, she got it from somewhere. I have known her, sir, get into her sledge and drive a day's journey into town to get rum for me. A diamond-hearted woman, I say! And then her love, too! Despite this ruby nose of mine, she loves me. She says it suits me very well. Nay, she is not even hurt at remaining simply the wife of a senior lieutenant. But for her I should have sent a bullet through my head long ago."
I tried to comfort him with the assurance that a senior lieutenant in active service was worth ever so much more in the world's estimation than a general on the retired list.
He wound up by inviting me to have a glass of punch with him in the evening as soon as his lodgings were ready to receive me.
I didn't go.