A student entered the hall, looked about at its occupants, and presently installed himself in a seat near the two friends, touching his blue cap as he sat down. The pair returned the salutation and continued their conversation. The student was of the Rhine Korps, a tall, saturnine youth, evidently strong and active, but very sallow and lean. Greif knew him by sight. His name was Bauer, and he had of late gained a considerable reputation as a fighter. Rex glanced curiously at him once, and then, as though one look had been enough to fix his mental photograph, did not turn his eyes towards him again. Bauer ordered a measure of beer, lighted a black cigar and leaned back against the wall, gloomily eyeing the people at more distant tables. He looked like a man in a singularly bad humour, to whom any piece of mischief would be a welcome diversion. Rex abandoned his sketch of Greif’s head, looked surreptitiously at his watch and then began to draw circles and figures instead. Presently he slipped his hand into his pocket and drew out the almanac he always carried about him.
‘What are you doing?’ asked Greif, interrupting himself in the midst of what he had been saying.
‘Nothing particular,’ answered Rex. ‘Go on. I am listening.’
‘I was saying,’ continued Greif, ‘that I preferred my own part of the country, though you may call it less civilised if you please.’
‘It is natural,’ assented Rex, without looking up from his figure. ‘Every man prefers the place where he is born, I suppose, provided his associations with it are agreeable.’ Then he unconsciously spoke a few words to himself, unnoticed by Greif.
‘Saturn in his fall and term-cadent peregrine.’
‘It is not only that,’ said Greif. ‘Look at the Rhine, how flat and dull and ugly it grows--’
He was suddenly interrupted by the close presence of the other student, who had risen and stood over him, touching his cap and bowing stiffly.
‘Excuse me,’ he said in a harsh voice, ‘my name is Bauer--from Cologne--I must beg you not to insult the Rhine in a public place, nor in my hearing.’
Greif rose to his feet at once, very much astonished that any one should wish to quarrel with him upon such a pretence. Before he could answer, however, Rex anticipated him by addressing the student in a tone that rang through the broad room.
