form the first layer of a respectable liberal bourgeois
republic."

"Unless," said Aurelle, "Bonapartsky, having tasted the sweets of
victory, sets out to conquer Europe with the help of his trusty
grenadiers. Between the Terror and 'the respectable republic' there
were twenty years of war, sir."

"The most terrible of all revolutions," began the doctor, "will be
the English one. In France the intellectual is popular; the tribune
of the people is a bearded professor with the kindest of hearts. In
England the people's commissary will be a hard, clean-shaven, silent,
cruel man."

"That may be," said the colonel; "but he will find more silent and
still harder men up against him. If you think we are going to lie
down and submit like the fatalist nobles of Petrograd, you are
mistaken."

"You, sir? And why the devil should _you_ defend business men and
profiteers whom you are never tired of sending to perdition?"

"I shall not be defending profiteers, but a form of society which I
hold to be necessary. The institutions which our ancestors have
adopted after six thousand years' experience are worth ten times more
than the systems of foolish and boastful hotheads. I stand always for
what is."

With a sweeping gesture the doctor pointed to the twisted, rusty
wire, the shattered walls, the mangled trees and the dense harvest of
wooden crosses that rose from the barren soil.

"Allow me," he said, "to express the heartfelt admiration I feel
for this venerable civilization of yours, and let me contemplate the
fruits of these wise institutions which six thousand years have
consecrated for you. Six thousand years of war, six thousand years of
murder, six thousand years of misery, six thousand years of
prostitution; one half of mankind busy asphyxiating the other half;
famine in Europe, slavery in Asia, women sold in the streets of Paris
or London like matches or boot-laces--there is the glorious
achievement of our ancestors. It is well worth dying to defend, I
must confess!"

"Yes, doctor," replied Aurelle; "but there are two sides to the
question: six thousand years of reform, six thousand years of revolt,
six thousand years of science, six thousand years of philosophy----"

"Now don't you run away with the idea that I'm a revolutionary. As
far as I am concerned, the movements of men interest me no more than
those of the spiders or the dogs I am so fond of observing. I know
that all the speeches in the world will not pre