"The Commandant asks God to maintain peace between Germany and France
and hopes that the two peoples will become increasingly friendly."
Another orator arose at the same table. He was the most influential of
the German passengers, a rich manufacturer from Dusseldorf who had just
been visiting his agents in America. He was never mentioned by name. He
bore the title of Commercial Counsellor, and among his countrymen was
always Herr Comerzienrath and his wife was entitled Frau Rath. The
Counsellor's Lady, much younger than her important husband, had from
the first attracted the attention of Desnoyers. She, too, had made an
exception in favor of this young Argentinian, abdicating her title from
their first conversation. "Call me Bertha," she said as condescendingly
as a duchess of Versailles might have spoken to a handsome abbot seated
at her feet. Her husband, also protested upon hearing Desnoyers call him
"Counsellor," like his compatriots.
"My friends," he said, "call me 'Captain.' I command a company of the
Landsturm." And the air with which the manufacturer accompanied these
words, revealed the melancholy of an unappreciated man scorning the
honors he has in order to think only of those he does not possess.
While he was delivering his discourse, Julio was examining his small
head and thick neck which gave him a certain resemblance to a bull dog.
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