Tietjens said:
"What did the general gather?"
"He . . ." Levin said, "he stood over you with his head held to one side, looking rather cunning . . . like a magpie listening at a hole it's dropped a nut into. . . . First he looked disappointed: then quite glad. A simple kind of gladness. Just glad, you know. . . . When we got outside the hut he said 'I suppose in vino veritas,' and then he asked me the Latin for 'sleep' . . . But I had forgotten it too. . . ."
Tietjens said:
"What did I say?"
"It's . . ." Levin hesitated, "extraordinarily difficult to say what you did say. . . . I don't profess to remember long speeches to the letter. . . . Naturally it was a good deal broken up. . . . I tell you, you were talking to a young lady about matters you don't generally talk to young ladies about. . . . And obviously you were trying to let your . . . Mrs. Tietjens, down easily. . . . You were trying to explain also why you had definitely decided to separate from Mrs. Tietjens. . . . And you took it that the young lady might be troubled ... at the separation. . . ."
Tietjens said carelessly:
"This is rather painful. Perhaps you would let me tell you exactly what did happen last night. . . ."
Levin said:
"If you only would!" He added rather diffidently: "If you would not mind remembering that I am a military court of inquiry. It makes it easier for me to report to the general if you say things dully and in the order they happened."