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274 teacup while passing round plates, and to offer the cakes with a respectful smile I And while eating it was necessary to say something touching about the successful performance of the "Secret Countess," and a word of appropriate recognition for the far-seeing administrative ability of the Governor, and something impressive about revolution and patriotism, and into the bargain, to feed the Wulckow's dog which was begging! Here there could be no question of the unpretentious gatherings in the Ratskeller and of the Veterans' Association. One had to gaze with a simulated smile into the pale blue eyes of Captain von Köckevitz, whose bald head was white, but whose face from the middle of his forehead down was a fiery red, and who talked about the training ground. And if one were already breaking into a sweat from anxiety lest the question be raised whether one had served in the army, there came the unexpected relief, that the lady at one's side, who combed her blond, white hair flat over the top of her head, and whose nose was freckled, began to talk about horses. &hellip; This time Emma saved Diederich with the aid of Herr von Brietzen, with jyhom she seemed to be on very familiar terms. Emma joined easily in the conversation about horses, used technical terms, and even went so far as to draw on her imagination about cross-country rides which she said she had taken on the estate of an aunt. When the lieutenant offered to go out riding with her, she pleaded poor Frau Hessling as an excuse, as she would not allow it. Diederich could hardly recognize Emma. Her uncanny talents left Magda altogether in the shade, although the latter had succeeded in capturing a husband. As on the occasion when he returned from the "Green Angel," Diederich reflected uneasily on the unaccountable ways which, when you were out of sight, a girl would &hellip; Then he noticed that he had not been listening to a question of Frau von Wulckow's, and that every one had stopped talking, so that he might reply. He gazed around him helplessly, looking for assistance, but his eyes met only the gaze of a forbidding portrait of a man,