He looked at her surprised and said:

"No, why?"

A roguish smile, which at the last question had curled at the
corners of her mouth, broke into a merry laugh.

"I wanted to know whether you marched into battle with your curls,
or whether you sacrificed them to the fatherland?"

Wilhelm was not offended, but said simply:

"Dear young lady, appearances give you the right to make fun--"

"Ah, don't be angry, I am ill-mannered."

"No, no, you are quite right; but, believe me, I only wear my hair
long so as to save myself the trouble of going to the hairdresser's.
If I dared imagine that I should be less insupportable with a
tonsure--"

"For heaven's sake, don't think of it, the curls suit you very
well." She said this with a frivolity of manner which she
immediately perceived to be unsuitable, and to get over her
embarrassment, she jumped at another subject of conversation. "So
you live quite alone? That strikes me as being very dreary. Still
you must have many friends?"

"Yes, so-called friends--comrades from the gymnasium, from the