It was time to go and dine. I bought a paper directly we got out. Laquarrière exclaimed: "What thirst for news!"
"I admit it."
"And you expect to find it in the papers!"
It was a fact that I searched in vain for any definite news concerning the serious military and diplomatic situations. Always the same system of brief, touched-up telegrams. One would so much have liked to be certain of England's attitude. However, the theory of Italian neutrality seemed to be confirmed; one good point!
"What will the flying machines do?" I asked suddenly.
The subject interested me. I had visions of raids and fantastic combats à la Wells.
"Nothing at all!" Laquarrière broke in. "They haven't a ghost of a chance against Zeppelins."
He embarked on the praises of these Dreadnoughts of the air, one of which had gone two thousand kilometres without a stop, a few months before.
"I shouldn't be surprised to see them over Paris to-night!"
I tossed my head. He continued:
[Pg 67]
"Besides, as regards aeroplanes, you mustn't imagine that we're in any way superior to them in that line. They've beaten all our records lately, distance and height."
It was only one detail among many. He did not hide from me the fact that he had an extremely poor opinion of our state of preparation. Cipollina's tone and mistrust were repeated in him. I ventured to remark:
"Our troops in the East are tip-top."
He shrugged his shoulders.
"Perhaps, but you are hardly up to the same form."
What could one say without losing one's temper, a thing I was not in the least anxious to do.
After leaving the restaurant, we took a turn on the boulevards, where the increasing crowd was gathering. Lost in the streams of people, alternately bumped into or elbowed, it was impossible to keep up a connected conversation. So much the better. I was quite willing to forget the presence of my companion.
I was haunted by the thought that it was my last evening of liberty ...; after to-morrow my uniform would impose upon me the strictest restraint. I was making use of the final respite. I inhaled without displeasure the dusty air laden with the smells of acetylene gas and human emanations.
A lot of the shop windows had their shutters up and looked dismal, and looking up one could make out insolent German inscriptions. Angry bourgeois muttered as they passed, clenching their fists. People were talking of nothing but the hasty dismissals of the day before. The other shops flaunted their dazzling electric lights. The luminous sky-signs, intermit[Pg 68]tent and hallucinating, unrolled flamboyant zigzags and blazing coils. An unreal scene, well suited to the agitation of the hour! Soon it would be quenched and blotted out and dismal.... Paris was lavishing her final brilliance. What gaps were to be made by to-morrow's call in this multitude promenading their quivering city with such pride! I tried to read his secret on the face of each man of an eligible age for military service. Was he going to rejoin? and I felt inclined to shout to him:
"I'm going, you know; I'm one of you!"
My glance rested approvingly on the sturdy-looking fellows whose martial air under their képis I could well imagine. With their heads held high and their hands behind their backs, most of them looked about them with a superlatively good-natured expression, quite innocent of swagger.
Laquarrière shouted down my ear:
"You all look as if you were starting out for a day's shooting!"
Oh! so I looked like the rest? Well, I was not sorry for it!
My companion persuaded me to finish up the evening in a music hall.
The place was full. Lots of people were treating themselves to an evening's amusement before the coming horrors. There was a sketch, followed by several acrobatic turns. The audience was enthusiastic. But I was struck, nevertheless, by the coldness with which "the eccentric" Fergusson, usually the idol of the public, was received.
Laquarrière enlightened me by remarking:
"That will teach England to buck up a bit!"
We la............