The captain answered, "Yes, first-rate." He did not conceal the "but," however. The calm good sense of his wife always helped him to test his own impressions. Kläre was, indeed, a woman whose like was not to be found in the whole world; a woman who had been created just for him. She had her own methods in everything. If, at dinner, her husband were worried with thoughts of the black sheep in his battery, and would keep introducing such topics at their comfortable board, then she would snub him quite severely. But when he came to her with his real doubts and anxieties she was ever ready to comfort and advise him. She knew all about his plan of testing himself for a year in the command of a battery; and sometimes she was inclined to advise him to shorten the period of probation. She was shrewd enough to foresee that within a year and a day he would have discarded his officer's uniform. Lieutenant Reimers continued as hitherto to be a welcome guest in the Güntz household. He had realised that his frequent visits were in no way a bother to his friend; and when Frau Kläre, with the amiability of a careful hostess, considered his little idiosyncrasies of taste, he could but protest feebly: "Really, dear lady, you spoil me too much! What shall I do if, for instance, I have to go to the Staff College next year?" To Güntz he once said, "I must say that in contemplating you and your wife, one realises what a half-man a bachelor is." The stout captain laughed good-naturedly. "Kläre," he shouted to his wife, who was just coming into the room, "it appears that I wasn't making a mistake when I chose you for my wife." "How's that, my Fatty?" asked his wife. "Reimers has just been saying that the sight of our wedded life gives him an appetite for matrimony. What do you say to that?" "A very sensible remark, Herr Reimers," laughed Kläre. Reimers blushed a little and rejoined: "Well, then, I shall soon go bride-hunting. For your advice is always good, dear lady." "Now then, flatterer!" growled Güntz. "Don't make my wife conceited." But when Reimers had bidden them good-bye he said to Kläre: "I really believe it would be a most sensible thing for Reimers to marry; he is not the sort to become a mere mess-house or tavern _habitué_. He ought to go about and study the daughters of our country a little." "Why go about? There's good enough near at hand," said Frau Kläre. The captain looked up: "Eh?" Smilingly his wife pointed over her shoulder to the neighbouring villa. "Marie Falkenhein?" asked Güntz. Frau Kläre nodded. "You don't want to earn a match-maker's reward, do you, now?" inquired her husband.