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Sandbach came back laughing and dropped painfully into his low arm-chair.

'That fellow...' he began.

The General slightly raised his hand.

'A minute!' he said. 'I was about to tell Chrissie, here, that if I am offered the job--of course it's an order really--of suppressing the Ulster Volunteers...I'd rather cut my throat than do it...'

Sandbach said:

'Of course you would, old chap. They're our brothers. You'd see the beastly, lying Government damned first.'

'I was going to say that I should accept,' the General said, 'I shouldn't resign my commission.'

Sandbach said:

'Good God!'

Tietjens said:

'Well, I didn't.'

Sandbach exclaimed:

'General! You! After all Claudine and I have said...' Tietjens interrupted:

'Excuse me, Sandbach. I'm receiving this reprimand for the moment. I wasn't, then, rude to Ingleby. If I'd expressed contempt for what he said or for himself, that would have been rude. I didn't. He wasn't in the least offended. He looked like a cockatoo, but he wasn't offended. And I let him over-persuade me. He was right, really. He pointed out that, if I didn't do the job, those swine would put on one of our little competition wallah head clerks and get all the schedules faked, as well as starting off with false premises!'