I happened to have been reading it the day before. Then I could not go to sleep the next night, and it occurred to me that the lines were perhaps the most touching I knew, and that they were an example of the modernity or rather the timelessness of all art. Then I tried to imagine a situation today that they would fit, and the whole story was worked out before morning. My own reaction about it is that I have stolen Vergil’s thunder.”—George Humphrey.
Plot.
Initial Incident: In the first few months of the war there comes to a small English village a refugee from Alsace-Lorraine, a monument carver.
Steps toward the Dramatic Climax: He refuses to go into shelter from the frequent air-raids and learns from watching the planes that they pass a certain point before turning toward London.
Dramatic Climax: Acting upon his information the gunners bring down a German plane.
Steps toward the Climax of Action: The carver finds himself a hero. It is decided to erect a tombstone over the dead aviator, with the inscription “Here lies a fallen German.” The stone-cutter is deputed to carve the inscription. The relics of the raid are exposed for view in the little museum. The personal effects of the aviator consist largely of a young, fair-haired woman—“Meine Mutter.” The stone-cutter goes out to buy a chisel and to visit the museum. On his return he seems ill but goes to work on the inscription.
Climax of Action: He dies before completing the epitaph.
Dénouement: The dead aviator was his son, as the picture had revealed to him, and as the unfinished inscription, “Bis patriæ m—,” revealed to the Dean.
Presentation. Mr. Humphrey has seen fit to present this tale as a rehearsed one. In so doing, he has secured mellowness—consistent with utmost economy, sympathy for the stone-cutter, and an excellent apology for the Latin phrases. He evidently had in mind, whether at the beginning or later, the resemblance between a fallen aviator and the luckless Icarus. To emphasize the relation, he needed to requisition classical atmosphere as well as classical fact. This he has accomplished through the stone-cutter’s interest in “Phœnix-Latin,” and the Oxford Dean, who lectures on Latin poetry.
Characterization. The reserve of the refugee stone-cutter is used to advantage in conserving economy and in suggesting facts, rather than stating them, to the reader. The Frenchman tells almost nothing of his past life, of which much is nevertheless revealed through the illuminating high lights of the action.