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Rh were rooted, had its finest representative in Wiebel. On behalf of the Neo-Teutons he would fight a duel with any one. He had raised the dignity of the corps, for he was reputed to have once corrected a member of the swellest corps in Germany. He had also a relative in the Emperor Francis Joseph's second regiment of Grenadier Guards, and every time Wiebel mentioned his cousin, von Klappke, the assembled Neo-Teutons felt flattered, and bowed. Diederich tried to imagine a Wiebel in the uniform of an officer of the Guards, but his imagination reeled before such distinction. Then one day, when he and Gottlieb Hornung were coming highly perfumed from their daily visit to the barber's, Wiebel was standing at the street corner with a quarter-master. There could be no doubt that it was a quarter-master, and when Wiebel saw them coming he turned his back. They also turned and walked away stiffly and silently, without looking at one another or exchanging any remarks. Each supposed that the other had noticed the resemblance between Wiebel and the quarter-master. Perhaps the others were long since aware of the true state of affairs, but they were all sufficiently conscious of the honour of the Neo-Teutons to hold their tongues and forget what they had seen. The next time Wiebel mentioned "my cousin, von Klappke," Diederich and Hornung bowed with the others, as flattered as ever.

By this time, Diederich had learned self-control, a sense of good form, esprit de corps, and zeal for his superiors. He thought with reluctance and pity of the miserable existence of the common herd, to which he had once belonged. At regularly fixed hours he put in an appearance at Wiebel's lodgings, in the fencing-hall, at the barber's and at Frühschoppen. The afternoon walk was a preliminary to the evening's drinking, and every step was taken in common, under supervision and with the observance of prescribed forms and mutual deference, which did not exclude a little playful roughness. A fellow-student, with whom Diederich had hitherto had only official