"Hang it all, I told that lie to my grandmother and my grandfather told it to his grandfather. And they call you brilliant! . . ." He paused and then asked reproachfully:
"Or do you think I'm in a state of senile decay?"
Tietjens said:
"I know you, sir, to be the smartest general of division in the British Army. I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why I said what I did. . . ." He had told the exact truth, but he was not sorry to be disbelieved.
The General said:
"Then I'll take it that you tell me a lie meaning me to know that it's a lie. That's quite proper. I take it you mean to keep the woman officially out of it. But look here, Chrissie"—his tone took a deeper seriousness—"if the woman that's come between you and Sylvia—that's broken up your home, damn it, for that's what it is!—is little Miss Wannop . . ."
"Her name was Julia Mandelstein," Tietjens said.
The General said:
"Yes! Yes! Of course! . . . But if it is the little Wannop girl and it's not gone too far . . . Put her back . . . Put her back, as you used to be a good boy! It would be too hard on the mother. . . ."
Tietjens said: