I had seen it coming on for some days. As soon as Henry has spent his first half-hour on the newspapers he is ripe to explain in detail the exact disposition of the Allied forces and "what they are evidently driving at." And the thing is getting very complicated. He cannot make you understand. He tries to draw maps on the back of envelopes, but his drawing is pitiable, and then naturally he reaches out at any object that happens to be lying on the table, planks it down for Paris or Verdun, and gets seriously to work. He and Sinclair were sitting before the unlit fire in the drawing-room when Sinclair put forth his brilliant hypothesis about a flanking movement on VON KLUECK'S right. Henry was quite certain it was wrong. He was down on his knees in a moment grabbing pieces of coal. "Look here," he said. "There's Chalons; and that shovel is Soissons. You must not forget that the Ardennes lie in behind here"--realistically represented by a heap of logs from the wood-basket--"and that is the Meuse. Of course it isn't quite so straight as that really"--he put the poker in position--"but that is the line of it. Very well. Can't you see that what he is at is to nip this force here between two fires? By Jove, the tongs will do splendidly for that. Might have been made for it. So. Well, if JOFFRE is any good--Stop a bit"--he filled both hands with coal--"move your chair back. There, that's Paris, and the edge of the fender is the Marne. Well, if JOFFRE is not asleep his game is obviously----" "Stop a bit," said Sinclair. "You've left out the CROWN PRINCE." "No, I haven't. That's him there in the work-basket. And you must remember that there are Uhlans all over the place." (I think that it must have been the Uhlans that chiefly exacerbated my wife when she came to clear up. They did reach pretty far afield, and there was quite a lot of them under the sofa.) "This is the Allied front"--Sinclair had brought him several walking-sticks by this time. "Now suppose we were to swing round like this--I say, do move your chair. Like this. Confound it, I didn't notice that little table was in the way. Why do people put silly little vases of flowers on tables? Mop it up, will you? Of course FRENCH is here. You must keep your eye on FRENCH. But----" "What about these lines of communication?" Henry paused. "Well, there's always the Belgians. I'm afraid we'll have to move the piano. Just give it a heave at the other end, will you? That'll do. Those pianola records are just the thing. No, not so near together. So. Now you see how it works. The whole thing from here to here moves sideways." "Stop a bit," says Sinclair. "You're moving Paris sideways. Whatever they may do to it when it falls--if it ever does--I don't think they'll move it sideways."