a interrupted him to introduce one of his friends, Lieutenant
Vincent, a gunner with a frank, open face. The general, fixing his
clear gaze on Aurelle, tried to speak of France and England.

"I'm glad, Messiou, that we've come to an understanding at last. I'm
not very well up in all this business, but I can't stand all these
bickering politicians."

Aurelle was suddenly conscious of the general's real sincerity and
anxiety about the future. Lieutenant Vincent came up to them. He
had the rather wild, attractive grace of the present-day youth. As he
sat listening to General Bramble's words about English friendship,
his lips parted as though he was burning to break in.

"Will you allow me, sir," he suddenly interrupted, "to tell you how
we look at it. Frankly speaking, you English were marvellous during
the war, but since the Armistice you have been on the wrong tack
entirely. You are on the wrong tack because you don't know the
Germans. Now I've just come back from Germany, and it is absolutely
clear that as soon as those fellows have enough to eat they'll fall
on us again. _You_ want to get their forgiveness for your victory.
But why should they accept their defeat? Would you accept it in their
place?"

"The sense of shame after victory," said the doctor gently, "is a
sentiment quite natural to barbarous peoples. After employing the
utmost cruelty during the fight, they come and implore their
slaughtered enemies' pardon. 'Don't bear us a grudge for having cut
off your heads,' they say; 'if we had been less lucky you would have
cut off ours.' The English always go in for this kind of posthumous
politeness. They call it behaving like sportsmen. It's really a
survival of the 'enemy's taboo.'"

"It would be quite all right," put in Lieutenant Vincent
breathlessly, "if you waited to appease the shades of your enemies
till you were quite certain they were really dead. But the Germans
are very much alive. Please understand, sir, that I'm speaking
absolutely without hate. What I mean is that we must destroy
Carthage--that is German military power--so completely that the very
idea of revenge will appear absurd to any German with an ounce of
common sense. As long as there exists at any time the barest chance
of an enterprise, they will attempt it. I don't blame them in the
least for it; in fact I admire them for not despairing of their
country; but our duty--and yours too--is to make such an enterprise
impossible."

"Yes,