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Cigars had been passed round and the talk
eddied casually back and forth with the twisty smoke wreaths.
An orderly drew the empty chair back with a thump. I think I jumped. A
slender man, whose uniform fitted him as though it had been his skin,
was sitting down beside me. Unlike those who came before him, he had
entered so quietly that I had not sensed his coming. I heard the
soldier call him Excellency; and I heard him tell the soldier not to
give him any soup. We swapped commonplaces, I telling him what my
business there was; and for a little while he plied his knife and fork
busily, making the heavy gold curb chain on his left wrist tinkle
musically.
"I'm rather glad they did not get me this afternoon," he said as though
to make conversation with a stranger. "This is first-rate veal--better
than we usually have here."
"Get you?" I said. "Who wanted to get you?"
"Our friends, the enemy," he answered. "I was in one of our trenches
rather well toward the front, and a shell or two struck just behind me.


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