The two young men got up together. They were nearly of the same height and figure; both were of an energetic type, although different in expression--Oberlé, careful to relax all that was too serious in his face when at rest; Farnow exaggerating the harshness of his whole personality. The young lieutenant drew down his tunic to take out the creases, took from a chair his flat cap decorated in front with a cockade of the Prussian colours, and walking first with a studied stiffness, half turned towards the table where the commandant and the captain were sitting, saluted them with an almost invisible and several times repeated inclination of the body. The respectful good-fellowship of a short time ago was not now in place. The two chiefs from habit inspected this lieutenant leaving Carolis. Gentlemen themselves, very jealous of the honour of their corps, having learned by heart all the articles of the code of the perfect officer, they interested themselves in all that had to do with the conduct, the attitude, the dress, and the speech of a subordinate, who is the object of public criticism. The examination must have been favourable to Farnow. With a friendly and protective movement of his hand, the commandant dismissed him. As soon as they were in the street Farnow asked: "Well, they were perfect, were they not?" "Yes." "How you say that? Did you not find them kindly? You ought to see them in the service." "On the contrary," interrupted Jean, "they were too amiable. I see every day more and more that my father must have humiliated himself very much to be so honoured in high places. And that wounds me, Farnow." The other looked serious, and said: "_Franzosenkopf!_ What a strange character this nation has--who cannot accept their position as the conquered, and think themselves dishonoured if Germans make advances to them!" "It is because they do nothing gratuitously," said Oberlé. Farnow was not displeased at the word. It seemed to him a kind of homage to the hard, utilitarian temperamant of his race. Besides, the young lieutenant would not enter into a discussion where he knew that friendships ran the risk of being spoilt. He greeted a young woman, who came towards him, and followed her with his eyes. "That is the wife of Captain von Holtzberg. Pretty, isn't she?" Then pointing to the left, beyond the bridge to the quarters of the old city, illumined by the vaporous light of this spring morning, he added, as if the two thoughts were united naturally in his mind: "I like this old-world Strasburg. How feudal it is!"