In the evening of the same day on which the count and the colonel had been talking over George's future, George also conversed with Olga on the same subject. "I am tired of the whole thing, Olga, I shall not stay here any longer; I am sick of knocking my head against a stone wall that divides me from my fellow-officers. I have made up my mind to-day, I shall give in my resignation." Olga, who lately had been almost daily with George, and to whom he frankly expressed all his thoughts, had clearly foreseen that sooner or later it would come to this, nevertheless she was startled by his words, and sought to dissuade him but in vain. "At least exchange into another regiment," she begged. But George shook his head. "There's no object in that, dear. I know, of course, I should not be transferred to a miserable frontier garrison where one is nearly driven crazy; on the contrary, I should be sent to some fine town, but what should I do there? I know that I should take a certain position there, for one thing because I have been in the Guards, if only for a very short time, and that is thought much of in the provinces, and for another, because I am a rich man. For the latter reason alone I shall be heartily welcomed, for everybody will be delighted to be able to borrow from me. I know that from my former experience in the garrison, in all these little towns a newcomer who can be regarded as a new source for loans, is fêted and welcomed like a god: and everybody borrows money from him, from the captain down to the youngest lieutenant--even the ensign plucks up his courage by aid of a drink, and requests the lieutenant most respectfully for a loan of twenty marks. I know the whole thing. I never asked for a promissory note when I lent the money, but they always gave me one, for in such matters, one must preserve formality and act correctly, but not a single man ever redeemed his I O U. They are all lying now in my writing-desk, carefully arranged, to some extent a contribution to the history of the manners and morals of German lieutenants, a contribution to the study of the characteristics of 'aristocratic persons.'" He had risen and opened a drawer and was turning over the papers which he had taken out of a case.