which allots hooked noses to all her race, to the youngest
officer, frail Count Wilhelm von Eyrick.

They were all pretty and plump, without any distinctive features,
and all were very much alike in look and person, from their daily
dissipation, and the life common to houses of public
accommodation.

The three younger men wished to carry off their women
immediately, under the pretext of finding them brushes and soap;
but the captain wisely opposed this, for he said they were quite
fit to sit down to dinner, and that those who went up would wish
for a change when they came down, and so would disturb the other
couples, and his experience in such matters carried the day.
There were only many kisses; expectant kisses.

Suddenly Rachel choked, and began to cough until the tears came
into her eyes, while smoke came through her nostrils. Under
pretense of kissing her, the count had blown a whiff of tobacco
into her mouth. She did not fly into a rage, and did not say a
word, but she looked at her possessor with latent hatred in her
dark eyes.

They sat down to dinner. The commandant seemed delighted; he made
Pamela sit on his right, and Blondina on his left, and said, as
he unfolded his table napkin: "That was a delightful idea of
yours, captain."

Lieutenants Otto and Fritz, who were as polite as if they had
been with fashionable ladies, rather intimidated their neighbors,