Colonel, though so sweetly that the Colonel could not
well take offence and must perforce send for the
Adjutant:
'Colonel Prevost requires a batman and groom —
I wish them to be the best men you can find.5 God!
it was damnable to know oneself old, to have to be
civil to these impudent upstarts and pander to all
their new-fangled whims . . . CI repeat, the best men
you can find/ scowled the Colonel. Then he offered
the upstart a cigarette.
Prevost thanked him, lit it, and turned away
smiling.
§2
That evening Colonel Prevost sat at his desk —a
large kitchen table littered with papers: 'You are
cousins,' he was saying, 'is not that so?'
'That is so, mon Colonel;' Christophe answered.
'And you come from Provence?'
'Oui, mon Colonel.'
'Ah, bon; I also was born in Provence.' Then
to Jan: 'You get on well together, I trust? I cannot
tolerate quarrelsome servants.'
Jan's lips twitched as he struggled to hide a smile;
'We do not often quarrel these days, mon Colonel.'
'You may smile if you wish/, Prevost told him
quite gravely. 'And now listen to me with attention,'
he went on, 'I expect my boots to be groomed like
my horses and my horses to be groomed like my boots,
and both horses and boots to be groomed to perfec-
tion. I expect my own clothes to be faultlessly kept
and my horses' clothing to be quite as well cared for —
they must have their comforts and I must have mine
just so long as we are both able to get them. At the
moment I find myself in extreme discomfort; par
exemple, I greatly dislike this table. It will be for
448