out to be a very small place. Doctor Wilhelm was a friend of George
Rasmussen's. They had studied together, one semester in Bonn and one
semester in Jena, and had belonged to the same club in Jena. The last few
years they had even corresponded. Naturally, the discovery instantly
brought the two physicians closer.

The tone in the smoking-room was that of jolly carousals in German
_Bierstuben_. The men let themselves go, talked in loud voices, and gave
rein to that coarse humour and noisy gaiety in which time flies for them
and which to many of them is a sort of narcotic, giving them rest and
ease for a while from the mad chase of existence. Neither Frederick nor
Doctor Wilhelm was averse to this tone, which revived old memories of
their student days, when they had become accustomed to it. Though to the
average student the carousals, now taboo, may be an evil, physically and
intellectually, they are the time and place, nevertheless, at which the
phoenix of German idealism soars up from tobacco smoke and beer froth
to wing its flight to the sun.

Hans Füllenberg soon felt bored in the company of the two physicians who,
in fact, had completely forgotten him; and he slipped away, back to his
lady.

"When Germans meet," he said to her, "they must scream and drink
_Brüderschaft_ until they get tipsy."

Doctor Wilhelm seemed to be proud of the smoking-room.

"The captain," he said, "is very strict about not having the gentlemen
disturbed. He has given absolute orders that women under no
circumstances, not even if they smoke, are to be permitted here."