it not?"
Very quietly I replied that he (the Frenchman) was labouring
under a delusion; that perhaps, after all, I should not be
expelled from the Baron's presence, but, on the contrary, be
listened to; finally, that I should be glad if Monsieur de
Griers would confess that he was now visiting me merely in order
to see how far I intended to go in the affair.
"Good heavens!" cried de Griers. "Seeing that the General
takes such an interest in the matter, is there anything very
unnatural in his desiring also to know your plans? "
Again I began my explanations, but the Frenchman only fidgeted
and rolled his head about as he listened with an expression of
manifest and unconcealed irony on his face. In short, he adopted
a supercilious attitude. For my own part, I endeavoured to
pretend that I took the affair very seriously. I declared that,
since the Baron had gone and complained of me to the General, as
though I were a mere servant of the General's, he had, in the
first place, lost me my post, and, in the second place, treated
me like a person to whom, as to one not qualified to answer for
himself, it was not even worth while to speak. Naturally, I
said, I felt insulted at this. Yet, comprehending as I did,
differences of years, of social status, and so forth (here I
could scarcely help smiling), I was not anxious to bring about
further scenes by going personally to demand or to request
satisfaction of the Baron. All that I felt was that I had a
right to go in person and beg the Baron's and the Baroness's
pardon--the more so since, of late, I had been feeling unwell and
unstrung, and had been in a fanciful condition. And so forth,
and so forth. Yet (I continued) the Baron's offensive behaviour
to me of yesterday (that is to say, the fact of his referring
the matter to the General) as well as his insistence that the
General should deprive me of my post, had placed me in such a
position that I could not well express my regret to him (the
Baron) and to his good lady, for the reason that in all
probability both he and the Baroness, with the world at large,
would imagine that I was doing so merely because I hoped, by my
action, to recover my post. Hence, I found myself forced to
request the Baron to express to me HIS OWN regrets, as well as
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