Please, Mama."

"Sundays the church banner is raised above the Flag. I never heard a
post chaplain say immortality was contained on pieces of paper."

"Comfort, then, Mama," suggested Winifred.

"Creative work," muttered the general.

"Is it some trivial thing to endure the pangs of childbed that the
creations of men are so exalted? I have offered my life on a battlefield
no less and no more than my grandfather fought on at Chancellorsville.
Little minds do not judge, but I judge. I bore a son; he was my
extension as this weapon is my extension."

She thrust the sword forward to emphasize her utterance. "I will not
hesitate to judge my son. If he did not die in proper uniform at least I
shall not have him go down as a maker of piano notes instead of
buglecalls." She threw the balance of the score into the fire and
stirred it into a blaze with the steel's point.

The ringing of the telephonebell put a period to the scene. Constance,
who spoke several languages, answered it. She carried on an
incomprehensible conversation for a minute and then motioned to me with
her head. "It's for you, Mr Weener. Rio. I'll wait till they get the
connection through." She turned to the mouthpiece again and encouraged
the operator with a soothing flow of words.

I was vastly relieved at the interruption. It was undoubtedly Preblesham
calling me on some routine matter, but it served to distract attention
from the still muttering old lady and give her a chance to subside.

Preblesham's voice came in a bodiless waver over the miles. "A W? Can
you hear me? I can give you a tip. Just about three hours ahead of the
radio and newspapers. Can you understand me? Our big competitor has
bought the adjoining property. Do you get me, A W?"

I nodded at the receiver as though he could see me, my thoughts racing
furiously ahead. I had understood him all right: the Grass had somehow
jumped the saltwater gap and was loose upon another continent.

_73._ I had about three hours in which to dispose of all my South
American holdings before their value vanished. Telephone facilities in
the Thario house, though adequate for the transaction of the general's
daily business, were completely unequal to the emergency. Even if they
had not been, Mama's occasional sallies from her fireplace fort, saber
waving threateningly, frequently endangered half our communications and
we suffered all the while from the idiosyncrasies of the continental
operators who s