"I do not know," acknowledged Fritz, "but some means may be found. The Cadets' Colleges must, as I have said, be abolished, and every officer must have passed his matriculation, as was formerly the case in the Marines. There should be a limit of age; in my opinion it should be twenty, and then a man could not be a lieutenant till he was two-and-twenty; that is quite early enough, if after that age was no more taken into account. The age limit must be abolished. To-day no one who has not reached a certain rank by a certain age has any chance of making a career for himself. What is the object of keeping the army so young by all possible means? As a result of this, every year hundreds and hundreds of men have to seek for posts of all kinds. New elements, new officials, new views are introduced, and this does not tend to facilitate the training of the troops. If a man is lieutenant at twenty-two he can be a captain at five-and-thirty, a major at forty-four, and a colonel at eight-and-forty. Surely that is young enough, isn't it? And if he distinguishes himself in any way he can get his promotion earlier." "And would that make for efficiency in time of war?" "You can answer that better than I can. You were pensioned as a complete invalid, but in spite of this were you not at your discharge quite young enough and active enough to have done duty on the field?" "Yes, and no," grumbled the major. "I will explain what I mean. The chief army doctor worried round me for a long time, but he could find no wound for which he could write a certificate, so I assisted him a little and mentioned injuries which I did not possess, and then it was all right. But I could easily have held out for five--no, ten years. Go into a pension office in any large town and look at the innumerable officers who go there regularly at the first of each month to draw their pension--a few miserable pounds. They are all 'complete invalids,' or who have been pensioned on account of their age. Yet health and energy are to be read in their faces." "That is just what we all say," put in Fritz. "We have been lately talking about these things in the Casino; nothing of much value is said, still it is interesting what the different officers think about these matters. We are unanimous in wanting to abolish the military college. Every lieutenant must have passed his matriculation and no one can be an officer before he is one-and-twenty; if we once have that, there will be a great alteration in the army." There was a long pause; the major was ruminating over what Fritz had just said, then he said: "In many ways you have really most sensible ideas." "That is what I think," Hildegarde chimed in; "I must compliment you, Fritz. When I hear you speak so seriously, and with so much knowledge, I can hardly recognise you as my gay and frivolous brother."