French family, and naturally I would say
nothing that would hurt the feelings of the people round me, but there
can be no doubt that the French deserve all the misfortunes that have
fallen upon them. They would have invaded Germany, and all these poor
young Germans have been torn away from their friends and families to
fight."

"So have these young Frenchmen. To my mind the war was deliberately
forced upon France, but I think we had better agree to differ on this
subject. You have been among Germans and it is not unnatural that you
should have accepted their version. I have been living among Frenchmen,
and although I do not say that it would not have been much wiser if they
had avoided falling into the pit dug for them, my sympathies are wholly
with them, except in this outburst of folly that has resulted in the
establishment, for a time at any rate, of a Republic. Now, I have no
sympathy whatever with Republics, still less for a Republic controlled
by political adventurers, and like many Frenchmen I am going to fight
for France, and in no way for the Republic. At any rate let us agree to
avoid the subject altogether. We shall never convince each other however
much we might argue it over."

The girl was silent for two or three minutes, and then said--

"Well, we will agree not to quarrel over it. I don't know how it is that
we always see things so differently, Cuthbert. However, we may talk
about your doings without arguing over the cause. Of course you do not
suppose there will be much fighting--a week or two will see the end of
it all."

"Again we differ," he said. "I believe that there will be some sharp
fighting, and I believe that Paris will hold out for months."

She looked at him incredulously.

"I should have thought," she said, after a pause, "you were the last
person who would take this noisy shouting mob seriously."

"I don't think anything of the mob one way or the other," he said. "I
despise them utterly; but the troops and the mobiles are sufficient to
man the forts and the walls, and I believe that middle-class corps, like
the one I have entered, will fight manfully; and the history of Paris
has shown over and over again that the mob of Paris, fickle,
vain-headed, noisy braggadocios as they are, and always have been, can
at least starve well. They held out against Henry of Navarre till
numbers dropped dead in the streets, and until the Spaniards came at
last from the Netherlands and raised the si