Think of the fate of Hannibal and of Napoleon. Always the same story — too
much victory!"
Brother Onofrio bounded again in his amazement. "Peace! Luxury!" he
cried. "Haven't we got the Great Experiment?"
"Have we?" sighed Cyril, languidly.
"Isn't the crisis in a month?"
"There are twelve months in a year."
Brother Onofrio rose in indignation. He hated to be played with in this
manner; he could see no point in the jest, if it were one; or excuse for the
rudeness, in the alternative.
"Sit down, sit down!" said Cyril dreamily. "You say yourself the crisis is
not for a month. What a wonderful way is Ocean, girdling the five continents
like a mother with her children. I should like to sail out westward, past the
Pillars of Hercules, and up into the stormy reaches of the Bay, and — ah
well! it may not be. We are held here by our stern duty; we are the chosen
warriors of the Final Battle to decide whether men shall mould their own
destiny, or remain the toys of Fate; we are the pioneers of the Great
Experiment. To arms, Brother Onofrio! Be diligent! Be courageous! The
crisis is upon us — a month, no more! Return to me with your shield, or upon
it!
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
"Ah! now I understand you!" cried Onofrio warmly, clasping him in the
impulsive Italian fashion.
"That's splendid of you," he said brightly. "I do appreciate that." [212]
Brother Onofrio wriggled again.
"I half think," he said "that you know the Great Experiment will be a
failure, and that for some reason you don't care!"
"The bluntness of the British diplomat was no match for the subtlety of the
ambitious, wily, and astute Italian."
"Confound it! Is there anything real or true to you?"
"Wine, spirits, and cigars."
"You won't be serious You jest about everything most vital; and you make
solemnities of merest wisps of fancy. You would make drumsticks of your
father's bones, and choose a wife by blowing a puff-ball!"
"While you would go without music for fear of disturbing your father, and
choose a wife by the smell of a powder-puff."
"Oh, how can you do it?"