Thus elegantly posed on this same sunny noon, two young cavalry officers were scanning, eye-glass in eye, the passers-by, negligently returning the greetings of acquaintances, and, careless as to whether their remarks were overheard or not, ruthlessly criticising in a loud voice the occupants of the various equipages rolling by. In their immediate neighbourhood two infantry officers were seated near the balustrade, scorning however the negligent attitude of the two dragoons; one of them was reading a newspaper, while the other was gazing out at the passers-by. "I believe you mean to learn that paper by heart, Leo," one of them, a young fellow of about three-and-twenty, remarked to his comrade, his senior by two or three years, and also in rank as the star upon his shoulder indicated. The man thus addressed looked up with a smile, disclosing a handsome, expressive countenance of a forcible manly type. His thick, fair moustache became him well, concealing somewhat as it did the rather hard outline of the mouth and thus softening a certain sternness of expression which had characterized his face while absorbed in his newspaper, but which vanished entirely as he smiled. The mild lustre of large dark eyes made the handsome face still more attractive. "You're an awful bore to-day, Leo," the younger man continued; "we've been sitting here full half an hour, and you have hardly opened your lips. I cannot imagine what you find to read in that wretched 'Daily Post;' it makes me yawn only to look at it; nothing would induce me to read a line of it; 'tis full of such stupid stuff in these tiresome times of peace." "You're mistaken; the proceedings in Chambers are extremely interesting to-day." "The proceedings in Chambers!" the other cried, with comical dismay. "Good heavens, the fellow is reading politics! Leo, Leo, as your true friend, I must warn you: you are in perilous paths; read everything else that you choose,--the trashiest novels, and even poems if you insist upon it, but no politics; you will lose caste. Already you are looked upon askance as a genius, more than half an artist; if it should be whispered about that you are a politician you are ruined, Leo. An officer with an interest in politics is a lost man; if my warning voice has any influence Leo von Heydeck shall never fall so low. Throw the paper away, my dear fellow, and be a man; let us follow the example of our comrades the dragoons, Herr von Bertram and Count Waldheim, and criticise the lovely ladies driving past; this is just the time for it. Look! there comes the fairest of the fair, the richest of the rich, the loveliest of the lovely, divine Eva Schommer!"