"You are sure it was not himself. I am prepared to plead guilty to striking General O'Hara."
"It is not," Levin said, "a question of pleading guilty. There is no charge to that effect against you, and you are perfectly aware that you are not under arrest. . . . An order to perform any duty after you have been placed under arrest in itself releases you and dissolves the arrest."
Tietjens said coolly:
"I am perfectly aware of that. And that was General Campion's intention in ordering me to accompany him round my cook-houses. . . . But I doubt. . . . I put it to you for your serious attention whether that is the best way to hush this matter up. . . . I think it would be more expedient that I should plead guilty to a charge of striking General O'Hara. And naturally to being drunk. An officer does not strike a general when he is sober. That would be a quite inconspicuous affair. Subordinate officers are broken every day for being drunk."
Levin had said "Wait a minute," twice. He now exclaimed with a certain horror:
"Your mania for sacrificing yourself makes you lose all . . . all sense of proportion. You forget that General Campion is a gentleman. Things cannot be done in a hole-and-corner manner in this command. . . ."
Tietjens said:
"They're done unbearably. . . . It would be nothing to me to be broke for being drunk, but raking up all this is hell."
Levin said:
"The general is anxious to know exactly what has happened. You will kindly accept an order to relate exactly what happened."