"That a General was not worth his salt who did not secure the track of his army if defeated was one of his fixed principles," he said. "He would never depart from it, and his dispositions at Waterloo were based on it. In fact, his solicitude in that respect nearly caused a row between him and Blücher."
"Let me see," mused the girl aloud. "The Germans have never fought the British in modern times until this war."
Dalroy smiled at the thought which had evidently occurred to her.
"We are now just half-way between Mons and Waterloo. Each is about ten miles distant."
"We were allied then with the Belgians, Germans, and Russians against the French. Now we have joined the Belgians, French, and Russians against the Germans. It sounds like counting in a game of cribbage. A hundred years from to-day our combination may be with the Belgians, Germans, and French against the Russians."
"You mustn't even hint treason against our present Allies," he laughed.
"What are Allies? Of what avail are treaties? You men have mismanaged things woefully. It is high time women took a lead in governing."
"Awful! I do verily believe you are a suffragette."
"I am. During what periods has England been greatest? In the reigns of Elizabeth and Victoria."
"She was a very excellent woman. As soon as she came to the throne she declared her resolution 'not to follow the example of her predecessors in making use of a few of her subjects to oppress the rest.' The common people don't err in their estimate of rulers, and they knew what they were about in christening her 'Good Queen Anne.'"
"You have never told me what you were doing in Berlin."
Irene's intuition warned her that this harmless chatter had swung round with lightning rapidity to a personal issue. Sad to relate, she had not washed her face or hands for eleven days, so a blush told no tales; but she interrupted again rather nervously, "What is it you are sure of?"
"You must have been a governess-companion in some German family of position. I can foresee a trying future. I must brush up my dates, or lose caste forever. Isn't there a doggerel jingle beginning:
"In fifty-five and fifty-four Came Cæsar o'er to Britain's shore?
"If I learn it, it may save me many a trip."