"It is a fact, and, as you will recognise, a sufficiently disquieting one."
"Well, I offered General La Fayette to go and obtain some powder."
"Wherefrom?"
"Soissons."
"How are you going to get hold of it?"
"How? Why, there are not two ways of taking things, surely? I shall ask politely for it, to be sure."
"From whom?"
"The commanding officer, of course."
"And suppose he refuses?"