“Did you notice how this Stark woman again had a whispered confab with the colonel?” he said. “Such manners I think they ought to leave at home, for there they are not very particular. Just fancy, the other day I was witness when Stark threw a slipper at his wife, and she on her part had received me in a horribly soiled and frowzy morning gown.” “I saw worse than that,” interrupted Leimann. “Last week they had in my presence one of their frequent matrimonial disagreements, and the fat one, her husband, clinched the matter by shouting at her: ‘Hold your tongue, woman!’ A nice, lovable couple, those two!” “Anyway, it seems as if she lorded it over him pretty effectually,” broke in the adjutant. “Day before yesterday Stark had had his fill at the White Swan, and when he became a trifle noisy and quarrelsome his wife arrived on the scene and behaved simply disgracefully. Finally she tucked him under her arm and took him home amidst the shouts and laughter of the other guests. I don’t think their meeting at home can have been an angelic one.” “That sort of thing happens every little while,” remarked Pommer; “at least at the Casino[5] she appears whenever he does not depart punctually at mealtime, and calls him hard names before the very orderlies.” [5] “Casino”; the military club houses are so called.--ED. “Well, she is keeping a sharp eye on him just now,” said Captain König, good-humoredly, “for he wants to get his promotion as major, or, rather, it is her ambition to become Frau Major.” “Why, there can be no idea of that,” interjected Borgert, with a great show of righteous indignation. “If this totally incapable idiot becomes major I ought to be made at least a general. Though it is queer that the colonel is evidently moving heaven and earth in his behalf.” “Good reason why,” retorted Leimann, calmly. “How so?” “Don’t you know the story? And yet it is in everybody’s mouth.” “Then tell us, please, because we know not a word of it, and I scent something fiendishly interesting!” And Borgert rubbed his hands in anticipation.