One Man's Initiation (2 of 35)

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CHAPTER I (CONT'D)


"Oh, but I think it's so splendid of you"--she bared all her teeth, white and regular as those in a dentist's show-case, in a smile as she spoke--"to come over this way to help France."

"Perhaps it's only curiosity," muttered Martin.

"Oh no. . . You're too modest. . . What I mean is that it's so splendid to have understood the issues. . . That's how I feel. I just told dad I'd have to come and do my bit, as the English say."

"What are you going to do?"

"Something in Paris. I don't know just what, but I'll certainly make myself useful somehow." She beamed at him provocatively. "Oh, if only I was a man, I'd have shouldered my gun the first day; indeed I would."

"But the issues were hardly . . . defined then," ventured Martin.

"They didn't need to be. I hate those brutes. I've always hated the Germans, their language, their country, everything about them. And now that they've done such frightful things . . ."

"I wonder if it's all true . . ."

"True! Oh, of course it's all true; and lots more that it hasn't been possible to print, that people have been ashamed to tell."

"They've gone pretty far," said Martin, laughing.

"If there are any left alive after the war they ought to be chloroformed. . . And really I don't think it's patriotic or humane to take the atrocities so lightly. . . But really, you must excuse me if you think me rude; I do get so excited and wrought up when I think of those frightful things. . . I get quite beside myself; I'm sure you do too, in your heart. . . Any red-blooded person would."

"Only I doubt . . ."

"But you're just playing into their hands if you do that. . . Oh, dear, I'm quite beside myself, just thinking of it." She raised a small gloved hand to her pink cheek in a gesture of horror, and settled herself comfortably in her deck chair. "Really, I oughtn't to talk about it. I lose all self-control when I do. I hate them so it makes me quite ill. . . The curs! The Huns! Let me tell you just one story. . . I know it'll make your blood boil. It's absolutely authentic, too. I heard it before I left New York from a girl who's really the best friend I have on earth. She got it from a friend of hers who had got it directly from a little Belgian girl, poor little thing, who was in the convent at the time. . . Oh, I don't see why they ever take any prisoners; I'd kill them all like mad dogs."

"What's the story?"

"Oh, I can't tell it. It upsets me too much. . . No, that's silly, I've got to begin facing realities. . . It was just when the Germans were taking Bruges, the Uhlans broke into this convent. . . But I think it was in Louvain, not Bruges. . . I have a wretched memory for names. . . Well, they broke in, and took all those poor defenceless little girls . . ."

"There's the dinner-bell."

"Oh, so it is. I must run and dress. I'll have to tell you later. . ."

Through half-closed eyes, Martin watched the fluttering dress and the backs of the neat little white shoes go jauntily down the deck.

* * * * *

The smoking-room again. Clink of glasses and chatter of confident voices. Two men talking over their glasses.

"They tell me that Paris is some city."

"The most immoral place in the world, before the war. Why, there are houses there where . . ." his voice sank into a whisper. The other man burst into loud guffaws.

"But the war's put an end to all that. They tell me that French people are regenerated, positively regenerated."

"They say the lack of food's something awful, that you can't get a square meal. They even eat horse."

"Did you hear what those fellows were saying about that new gas? Sounds frightful, don't it? I don't care a thing about bullets, but that kind o' gives me cold feet. . . I don't give a damn about bullets, but that gas . . ."

"That's why so many shoot their friends when they're gassed. . ."

"Say, you two, how about a hand of poker?"

A champagne cork pops.

"Jiminy, don't spill it all over me."

"Where we goin', boys?"

"Oh we're going to the Hamburg show
To see the elephant and the wild kangaroo,
And we'll all stick together
In fair or foul weather,
For we're going to see the damn show through!"

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