I gazed at him with surprise and mistrust. But he seemed so sure of his ground! I knew these theories were current in higher military circles. These daring anticipations reminded me of those expressed so many times in my presence by my father and brother. How the thought of Victor pursued me! I could not restrain myself from mentioning him. "Oh! What is he in?" said Henriot. "The 161st St. Mihiel." "A crack regiment that!" "Have they been in action yet?" "Probably!" "And what about us?" I said. "Do you think we shall soon be engaged?" "I should hardly think so. What is there ahead of us? Luxembourg. They violated it on August 2nd. A lot of good it did them! Their offensive turned northwards. Now they've got to defend themselves. I don't think they'll attempt anything much against the Stenay gap. I don't think we're much exposed!" So much the better! I thought. "I personally should have liked to fight in this part of the country." "Do you come from near here?" "Yes, from Villers-sur-Meuse, about fifty miles from here." He added a few details. It was only his second post, and he asked for nothing better than to stay there as long as possible. His father had been master there before him, and was buried there. We are Lorrains, you see, that's why I made such a point of being in the reserves. I asked him naïvely if he had ever thought of war. "What! We never thought of anything else!" I suddenly recognised in him, the obstinacy and exaltation which had surprised me, as a child, in the inhabitants of Emberménil. I had honestly forgotten that such rancour survived. After more than forty years! Revenge then was not simply an abstract pretext, it corresponded actually, to a desire, a hatred! The old furnace still threw out sparks in the new generation capable of setting the conflagration alight at any moment. I could not help blaming this fury. The stupid dislike of resignation and discretion, of that which constituted men's happiness. Did I not, however, vaguely envy this impassioned tone and face? Why did I announce: "I'm a Lorrain too, you know!" "Really?" he said; "Oh well, I had suspected it, just from your name. What part do you come from?" I told him. He was delighted. He had relations round about Lunéville. "We are the only ones in the platoon. That ought to make us good friends, what?" I felt that he was moved. I pretended to be. But I was chilled again. I only thought like the other evening, under my father's gaze: "I a Lorrain! In what am I a Lorrain?" And the idea that I should have brothers and foes, just because I was born on this side, and not on that side of a certain line, seemed to me grotesque.