She shook hands with him, and pretended to remember his face, though thousands of young officers had passed through this hotel in the years of war.
“What memories, monsieur! Unforgettable to us, though others have forgotten!”
“Amiens is almost restored,” he said.
“There’s still much to be done.”
“How strange it must be for you, now that there are no British soldiers in France! This hotel used to be stuffed with officers of ours.”
“We get tourists to see the battlefields. English officers come up like you, and say ‘Do you remember me, madame?’ Sometimes I’m tempted to say, ‘Do you remember the agony of France in those years of war?’ ”
“Why that, Madame? We cannot forget.”
She shrugged her shoulders and smiled bitterly.
“Your Lloyd George forgets. He makes friends with the Germans. He wishes to let them off their punishment. He will let them get strong again, so that one day they will come back and crush us.”
Bertram laughed.