“But, sir, discipline——”
Lines appeared on his brow and round his mouth. Then he muttered in a tone that was at once arrogant, sad and sententious:
“Discipline!—why, you don’t know what it is! You can’t teach me anything about that. Do your four days.”
I understood from the gesture accompanying these words that I must depart. An unexpected reply escaped me.
“Sir,” I said, “I shall send in a complaint to the colonel.”
The dwarf brought down his fists on a pile of documents.
“Good! good! Another row! And we think we are going to win with such people! Get out of my sight, will you!”
I thought he groaned, and I found myself in the passage. Midway between the floor and the ceiling ran a water-pipe, making a babbling noise. It seemed to have been installed there in the silence since the days of Adam.
I went staggering back to my work.
The doctor of the third division at that time was a man named Briavoine. What a delightful and sympathetic person he was! He had such a jolly way of feeling convinced about everything he said. And how I loved to see him smile, with the wrinkles on his wide bare forehead and round his eyes!