though inevictably into the socket of his right eye like an eyeball itself) fixed in a rigid opaque glare at the American general. 'Alliances. That is what is wrong each time. The mistake we-us and you-and you-and you-' his hard and rigid stare jerking from face to face as he spoke '-have made always each time as though we will never learn. And this time, we are going to pay for it. Oh yes, we. Dont you realise that we know as well as you do what is happening, what is going to be the end of this by another twelve months? Twelve months? Bah. It wont last twelve months; another winter will see it. We know better than you do-' to the British general '-because you are on the run now and do not have time to do anything else. Even if you were not running, you probably would not realise it, because you are not a martial people. But we are. Our national destiny is for glory and war; they are not mysteries to us and so we know what we are looking at. So we will pay for that mistake. And since we will, you-and you-and you-' the cold and lifeless glare stopping again at the American '-who only think you came in late enough to gain at little risk-must pay also,' Then he was looking Wednesday Night at none of them; it was almost as though he had drawn one rapid quiet and calming inhalation, still rigid though and still composed. 'But you will excuse me, please. It is too late for that now-this time. Our problem now is the immediate one. Also, first-' He rose, tossing his crumpled napkin onto the table and picking up the filled brandy glass, so rapidly that his chair scraped back across the floor and would have crashed over had not the American general put out a quick hand and saved it, the German general standing rigid, the brandy glass raised, his close uniform as unwrinklable as mail against the easy coat of the Briton like the comfortable jacket of a game-keeper, and the American's like a tailor-made costume for a masquerade in which he would represent the soldier of fifty years ago, and the old general's which looked as if a wife had got it out of a mothballed attic trunk and cut some of it off and stitched some braid and ribbons and buttons on what remained. 'Hoc,'if the German general said and tossed the brandy down and with the same motion flung the empty glass over his shoulder.
'Hoch,' the old general said courteously. He drank too but he set his empty glass back on the table. 'You must excuse us,' he said. 'We are not situated as you are; we cannot afford to break French glasses.' He took another brandy glass from the tray and began to fill it. 'Be seated, General,' he said. The German general didn't move.
'And whose fault is that,' the German general said, 'that we have been-ja, twice-compelled to destroy French property? Not yours and mine, not ours here, not the fault of any of us, all of us who have to spend the four years straining at each other from behind two wire fences. It's the politicians, the civilian imbeciles who compel us every generation to have to rectify the blunders of their damned international horse-trading-'
'Be seated, General,' the old general said.
'As you were!' the German general said. Then he caught himself. He made a rigid quarter-turn and clapped his heels to face the old general. 'I forgot myself for a moment. You will please to pardon it.' He reversed the quarter-turn, but without the heel-clap this time. His voice was milder now, quieter anyway. 'The same blunder because it is always the same alliance: only the pieces moved and swapped about. Perhaps they have to keep on doing, making the same mistake; being civilians and politicians, perhaps they cant help themselves. Or, being civilians and politicians, perhaps they dare not. Because they would be the first to vanish under that alliance which we would establish. Think of it, if you have not already: the alliance which would dominate all Europe. Europe? Bah. The world-Us, with you, France, and you, England-' he seemed to catch himself again for a second, turning to the American general.'-with you for-with your good wishes-'
'A minority