“Let’s skip war.”
“No. I need it for my education.”
“I do too,” the Colonel said. “Not maneuvers. You know, in our army once, a general officer through chicanery obtained the plan of the maneuver. He anticipated every move of the enemy force and comported himself so brilliantly that he was promoted over many better men. And that was why we got smacked one time. That and the prevalence of week-ends.”
“We’re on a week-end now.”
“I know,” the Colonel said. “I can still count up to seven.”
“But are you bitter about everything?”
“No. It is just that I am half a hundred years old and I know things.”
“Tell me something more about Paris because I love to think of you and Paris in the week.”
“Daughter, why don’t you lay off Paris?”
“But I’ve been in Paris, and I will go back there again, and I want to know. It is the loveliest city in the world, next to our own, and I want to know some things truly to take with me.”
“We will go together and I will tell you there.”
“Thank you. But tell me a little now for this week only.”
“Leclerc was a high-born jerk as I think that I’ve explained. Very brave, very arrogant, and extremely ambitious. He is dead, as I said.”
“Yes, you told me.”
“They say you should never speak ill of the dead. But I think it is
