"We've  been  having  a  discussion,"  explained  Federico  to
Filippo. "Naturally,  about  the  war. Now  that  it's  a  sure
thing,  all  of  us,  without  caring  to  confess  it,  wish  that  it'll
break  out  soon  so  that  we  can  see  the  show. You  know  how
impatient  the  audience  gets  when  the  curtain's  a  bit  late  in
rising. I  was  put  in  mind  of  a  feeling  that  you  once  explained
to  me  with  the  merciless  precision  of  a  physician. When
there's  a  very  sick  person  in  the  house  and  one's  watching  over
him,  he  realises  that  half  of  him  is  really  desirous  of  the  suf-
ferer's end,  through  some  sort  of  solidarity  with  nature,
through  sympathy  with  the  inevitable  outcome. It's  the  same
when  folks  part. These  prolonged  farewells  at  the  station  are
a  nuisance,  and  the  one  who's  leaving,  while  he  sticks  his  head
through  the  window,  thrusts  his  elbow  against  the  side  as  if
he  would  send  the  train  on  its  way  five  minutes  ahead  of
schedule."

The  psychiatrist  peered  at  Filippo  over  the  rim  of  his  glasses,
and  old  Signora  Monti  blushed  slightly  at  thought  of  their
guest's  mourning  apparel  and  Federico's  perhaps  unwitting
cruelty. But  Filippo,  with  the  air  of  one  who  must  dispel  any
revelation  of  that  equivocal  sentiment,  plunged  into  the  politi-


RUBE  9

cal  conversation  and  turned  it  into  every  possible  channel. The
majority  scoffed  in  superior  fashion  at  all  prognostications  of
war. This  jumble  of  threats  was  nothing  but  a  diplomatic
trick,  and  the  mediation  of  England  would  soon  enough  restore
everything  to  order,  settling  the  nasty  mess  with  a  good  pull
at  Servia's  ears, — and  she  deserved  worse. "Modern  civilisa-
tion," said  Antonino  Bisi,  grandiloquently,  shaking  his  left
forefinger  and  rounding  his  lips  as  if  he  were  sucking  at  some-
thing, "will  not  tolerate  the  outrage  of  a  war."  And  in  his
own  thoughts  he  added  that  it  might  postpone  by  several
months  a  university  competition  which  he  had  every  reason  to
count  on  winning  with  a  thesis,  seven-hundred  octavo  pages
long,  on  traumatic  amnesia. But  Filippo's  demonstration  of
the  inevitability  of  war  was  so  many-sided  and  so  conclusive
that  they  all  declared  themselves  beaten,  some  of  them  per-
suaded by  the  cogency  of  his  arguments,  others  overcome  by
a  logic  that  gave  no  quarter,  weakening  and  wearying  every
will  to  oppose. 