pointed mustache once so familiar to a world much the worse for them,
and March had the shiver of a fine moment in which he fancied the Third
Napoleon rising to view the scene where the First had looked his coming
ruin in the face.

"Why, it's Miss Triscoe!" cried his wife, and before March had noticed
the approach of another figure, the elder and the younger lady had
rushed upon each other, and encountered with a kiss. At the same time
the visage of the last Emperor resolved itself into the face of General
Triscoe, who gave March his hand in a more tempered greeting.

The ladies began asking each other of their lives since their parting
two days before, and the men strolled a few paces away toward the
distant prospect of Leipsic, which at that point silhouettes itself in a
noble stretch of roofs and spires and towers against the horizon.

General Triscoe seemed no better satisfied with Germany than he had been
on first stepping ashore at Cuxhaven. He might still have been in a pout
with his own country, but as yet he had not made up with any other; and
he said, "What a pity Napoleon didn't thrash the whole dunderheaded lot!
His empire would have been a blessing to them, and they would have had
some chance of being civilized under the French. All this unification
of nationalities is the great humbug of the century. Every stupid race
thinks it's happy because it's united, and civilization has been set
back a hundred years by the wars that were fought to bring the unions
about; and more wars will have to be fought to keep them up. What
a farce it is! What's become of the nationality of the Danes in
Schleswig-Holstein, or the French in the Rhine Provinces, or the
Italians in Savoy?"

March had thought something like this himself, but to have it put
by General Triscoe made it offensive. "I don't know. Isn't it rather
quarrelling with the course of human events to oppose accomplished
facts? The unifications were bound to be, just as the separations before
them were. And so far they have made for peace, in Europe at least, and
peace is civilization. Perhaps after a great many ages people will
come together through their real interests, the human interests; but at
present it seems as if nothing but a romantic sentiment of patriotism
can unite them. By-and-by they may find that there is nothing in it."

"Perhaps," said the general, discontentedly. "I don't see much promise
of any kind in the future."

"Well, I don't know.