So I answered frankly, as if these men
were old friends, and not the acquaintances of an hour, that, as I was,
as they could see, no longer young, very tired, and yet not weary with
life, but more interested than my strength allowed. I had sought a
pleasant retreat for my old age,--not too far from the City of my
Love,--and that I had chosen this hilltop for the sake of the panorama
spread out before me; that I had loved it every day more than the day
before; and that exactly three months after I had sat down on this
hilltop this awful war had marched to within sight of my gate, and
banged its cannon and flung its deadly bombs right under my eyes.
Do you know, every mother's son of them threw back his head--and laughed
aloud. I was startled. I knew that I had shown unnecessary feeling--but
I knew it too late. I made a dash for the house, but the lieutenant
blocked the way. I could not make a scene. I never felt so like it in
my life.
"Come back, come back," he said. "We all apologize. It was a shame to
laugh. But you are so vicious and so personal about it. After all, you
know, the gods were kind to you--it did turn back--those waves of
battle.
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