“You have received me so kindly that I would like to speak as frankly as you will allow me. I am young, M. le Comte, and I am still younger in diplomacy....”
“And I am old in diplomacy,” he answered, laughing and showing a line of very white teeth which seemed formally to belie his words.
“You must therefore be indulgent to me and my inexperience....”
“I have not noticed it,” said he, laughing again, in order to encourage me.
“And if you find that I am perhaps too persistent you will lay the blame on my inexperience and the youthfulness of my heart. I cannot remain calm and master my emotion, when I think of Europe to-day and of the actual situation in France. It is a situation that you know well.
“Now you have given us advice, a good and excellent piece of advice, and the advice of a friend. You have told us: Hold your Elections. I have pointed out the impossibility of doing so without an armistice.... And you send me back to the General Staff at Versailles to get it!
“I assure you, M. le Comte, that means war, the continuation of war to the point of exhaustion. France will not yield; she will continue to defend herself to the last man; she will let her territory be invaded down to the last village rather than accept unacceptable conditions.
“Will Europe continue as an impassive spectator of this terrible conflict?
“Will England continue to fold her arms without intervening to stop the carnage between two peoples?”
“We can do nothing to stop it,” he objected.