Frau Kahle, on her part, at last becoming convinced that all her arts were thrown away on this iceberg, suddenly changed her tactics, and dismissed her visitor in somewhat abrupt fashion. She swept from the room, leaving him to find his way out. Only the intoxicating perfume which she used by preference lingered a moment longer in the close air of the room as the lieutenant sought his way out; but despite a curious feeling of defeat which he could not help instinctively feeling, there was subdued exultation in his heart. His brow was serene as, at the next crossing of the street, he encountered Borgert, who hailed him: “Well, Pommer,” he shouted satirically, “how is your headache? And how did you find things at Kahle’s?--everything forgiven?” “Oh, yes, everything forgiven,” answered Pommer, demurely, without going into any further details. “Excellent. Was a wise thing for you to do to take counsel with an elder comrade, my dear fellow. Well, I am glad for your sake everything ended well.” “Yes, thanks to you,” said Pommer; and the two shook hands and parted. Pommer went home, well satisfied with himself. He fancied that all was now over between him and Frau Kahle. His acquaintance with women of her stamp had never been extensive, and to read the soul of one so utterly false and grossly sensual as this inveterate coquette, was quite beyond the ability of Lieutenant Pommer, analysis of his own or anybody else’s character not being his strong point. He had, however, miscalculated Frau Kahle’s fascinations over his unsophisticated self, and decidedly underestimated her craving for admiration. He was made aware of this when he next met her, on the day following. She greeted him with a smile so bewitching and a half-expressed sense of intimacy so flattering to his _amour propre_, that he was unable to resist. Soon these two became the talk of the little town. No matter if Pommer, looking at his inner self within the quiet retreat of his own bachelor quarters, bitterly bewailed his renewed fall from grace, her influence over the coarser fibre in his being easily triumphed over his qualms of conscience. He frequently met Borgert during this period, but the latter, far from training once more on him the battery of his eloquence, contented himself with some facetious remark or with a Mephistophelian grin. And for Kahle himself, he was probably the only one in the garrison--as is the fate of husbands too often in such cases--who was not in the slightest aware of the “goings-on” of his nominal partner in the joys and sorrows of life. And, besides, his tasks as chairman of the Casino’s house committee kept him, together with his official duties, practically away from home all day long, and frequently far into the night.