''Of course not,'' the girl said. ''But I'd rather Dante wrote it.''
''Dante isn't around,'' the Colonel said. ''Can you tell me anything about the war?'' the girl asked. ''Anything that I should be permitted to know?''
''Sure.
Anything you like.''
''What was General Eisenhower like?''
''Strictly the Epworth League.
Probably that is unjust too.
Also complicated by various other influences.
An excellent politician.
Political General.
Very able at it.''
''The other leaders?''
''Let us not name them.
They've named themselves enough in their memoirs.
Mostly extremely plausible out of something called the Rotary Club that you would never have heard of.
In this club, they have enameled buttons with their first names and you are fined if you call them by their proper names.
Never fought.
Ever.''
''Were there no good ones?''
''Yes, many.
Bradley, the schoolmaster, and many others.
Give you Lightning Joe as a good one.
Very good.''
''Who was he?''
''Commanded the Seventh Corps when I was there.
Very sound.
Rapid.
Accurate.
Now chief of staff.''
''But what about the great leaders we heard about like the Generals Montgomery and Patton?''
''Forget them, Daughter.
Monty was a character who needed fifteen to one to move, and then moved tardily.''
''I always supposed he was a great General.''
''He was not,'' the Colonel said. ''The worst part was he knew it.
I have seen him come into an hotel and change from his proper uniform into a crowd-catching kit to go out in the evening to animate the populace.''
''Do you dislike him?''
''No.
I simply think he is a British General. Whatever that means.
And don't you use the term.''
''But he beat General Rommel.''
''Yes. And you don't think any one else had softened him up?
And who can't win with fifteen to one?
When we fought here, when we were boys, the Gran Maestro and I, we won for one whole year with three to four against one and we won each one.
Three main bad ones.
That is why we can make jokes and not be solemn.
We had something over one hundred and forty thousand dead that year.
That is why we can speak gaily and without pomposity.''
''It is such a sad science; if it is a science,'' the girl said. ''I hate the war monuments, though I respect them.''
''I do not like them either.
Nor the process which led to their construction.