Von Farnow in shirt and trousers was dressing before paying certain calls, and going to the officers' casino. In trousers and shirt he was leaning over his toilet-table with its bevelled glass, washing his face. The room was perfumed with eau-de-cologne, brushes and manicure set were strewn round him. He turned as the door opened, his face all wet. "What is the matter, Hamm?" he cried, seizing a towel. "I took upon myself to call upon you, lieutenant, as the captain is not there, and Oberlé----" "Oberlé? What has he done?" Farnow interrupted nervously. "He has not put in an appearance since half-past eleven this morning." Farnow, who was drying his face, threw down the towel violently on the table, and approached the non-commissioned officer. He remembered Madame Oberlé's fears. "He thinks as I do," thought Hamm. "Has not come back? Have you been to the rue des Balayeurs?" "Yes, lieutenant; he left the house in a cab at ten minutes to twelve." The young lieutenant felt as though death's icy hand was on his heart. He closed his eyes for a moment, and with a violent effort regained his composure. "There is only one thing to do, Hamm," he said. He was deadly pale, but not a muscle of his face quivered. "You must warn your captain, and he will do what is prescribed in such cases." Farnow turned calmly, and looked at the ornamental clock on his desk. "One-forty--you must be quick." The _wachtmeister_ saluted and withdrew. The lieutenant ran to the adjoining study, and asked to be connected with the Strasburg station. Ten minutes later the telephone bell rang, and he learnt that a volunteer of the 9th Hussars, in uniform, had reached the station at the last moment with a valise portmanteau and taken a first-class ticket to Russ-Hersbach. "It's impossible," exclaimed Farnow, throwing himself on to the sofa; "there must be some mistake Russ-Hersbach is almost on the frontier. Jean would not desert--he is in love; he must be at Alsheim--he must at least have wanted to see Odile again. I must find out." "Hermann," he called, rapping with his knuckles on the mahogany table. The orderly, a stolid German, opened the door. "Saddle my horse and yours immediately." Farnow was soon ready; he hastened downstairs, found the horses waiting, crossed Strasburg, and once past the fortifications, spurred his horse to a sharp trot. As he neared Alsheim, Jean's desertion seemed to him more credible. Every detail of his conversation with Madame Oberlé came back to him, and other reasons as well for believing the calamity against which his imperious will was fighting desperately. "He does not understand Germany; he was glorying in it at Councillor Brausig's. And then his disunited family--a disunion increased by my engagement. But then he is himself engaged, or almost; and characters like his, French characters, must be dominated by love. No; I shall find him there--or have news of him."