"Upon my soul," he said, "what do you take me for?" He repeated the words as if he were amazed. "If," he said, "my G.S.O. II.--who's the stupidest ass I know--told me such a damn-fool lie as that I'd have him broke to-morrow." He went on expostulatorily: "Damn it all, it's the first duty of a soldier--it's the first duty of all Englishmen--to be able to tell a good lie in answer to a charge. But a lie like that . . ." He broke off breathless, then he began again: "Hang it all, I told that lie to my grandmother and my grandfather told it to _his_ grandfather. And they call you brilliant! . . ." He paused and then asked reproachfully: "Or do you think I'm in a state of senile decay?" Tietjens said: "I know you, sir, to be the smartest general of division in the British Army. I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to why I said what I did. . . ." He had told the exact truth, but he was not sorry to be disbelieved. The General said: "Then I'll take it that you tell me a lie meaning me to know that it's a lie. That's quite proper. I take it you mean to keep the woman officially out of it. But look here, Chrissie"--his tone took a deeper seriousness--"if the woman that's come between you and Sylvia--that's broken up your home, damn it, for that's what it is!--is little Miss Wannop . . ." "Her name was Julia Mandelstein," Tietjens said. The General said: "Yes! Yes! Of course! . . . But if it _is_ the little Wannop girl and it's not gone too far . . . Put her back . . . Put her back, as you used to be a good boy! It would be too hard on the mother. . . ." Tietjens said: "General! I give you my word . . ." The General said: "I'm not asking any questions, my boy; I'm talking now. You've told me the story you want told and it's the story I'll tell for you! But that little piece is . . . she used to be! . . . as straight as a die. I daresay you know better than I. Of course when they get among the wild women there's no knowing what happens to them. They say they're all whores. . . . I beg your pardon, if you like the girl . . ." "Is Miss Wannop," Tietjens asked, "the girl who demonstrates?" "Sandbach said," the General went on, "that he couldn't see from where he was whether that girl was the same as the one in the Haymarket. But he thought it was . . . He was pretty certain." "As he's married your sister," Tietjens said, "one can't impugn his taste in women." "I say again, I'm not asking," the General said. "But I do say again too: put her back. Her father was a great friend of your father's: or your father was a great admirer of his. They say he was the most brilliant brain of the party." "Of course I know who Professor Wannop was," Tietjens said. "There's nothing you could tell me about him."