Franz von Kreuzenach came into his room before he left, and wrung his hand.
“I must go, too,” he said. “My father is very much enraged with me. It is the break between the young and the old—the new conflict, as we were saying one day.”
He was near weeping, and Brand apologised for being the cause of so much trouble.
In the hall Elsa came to Brand as the orderly carried out his bags.
“To-morrow,” she said, “we will meet at Elizabeth von Detmold’s—my true friend.”
Her eyes were wet with tears, but she was smiling, and there was, said Brand, a fine courage shining in her face.
She put her hands on Brand’s shoulders and kissed him, to the deep astonishment and embarrassment of the orderly, who stood by. It was from this man, Brock, that the news of Brand’s “entanglement” spread, through other orderlies, to officers of his mess, as he knew by the cold shoulder that some of them turned to him.