I didn't realise my luck until we had talked a quarter of an hour—at least, struggled hard to do so.
"And what do you think of the war?" I asked him at a certain moment.
"The war! Which war?"
"Yes, the big war; the war between England, France, Russia, and Serbia on one side and Germany and——"
"Is there such a war? But why? What for?"
Then it was my turn to be perplexed. The "Why?" was already a difficult question, which would have required half an hour to be answered properly; as for the "What for?" I had absolutely no reason to give the old man. Who knows exactly what for? However, I tried to condense my answer in a word. "Jealousy, you know," I said after a moment.
"Jealousy! Just like at the time of Helen of Troy!" commented my learned partner.
"Yes, just about it."
"I didn't think people could still be such fools! When we last heard of war here it was two years ago. Well, the Turks have gone, the Greeks have come, and things are exactly like they were before, only we have to pay more taxes. I suppose the same will happen over there."
"I am afraid so, too."