Julio thought that the Counsellor and his admirers must be drunk.  “Look here, Captain,” he said in a conciliatory tone, “what you say lacks logic.  How could war possibly be acceptable to industrial Germany?  Every moment its business is increasing, every month it conquers a new market and every year its commercial balance soars upward in unheard of proportions.  Sixty years ago, it had to man its boats with Berlin hack drivers arrested by the police.  Now its commercial fleets and war vessels cross all oceans, and there is no port where the German merchant marine does not occupy the greatest part of the docks.  It would only be necessary to continue living in this way, to put yourselves beyond the exigencies of war!  Twenty years more of peace, and the Germans would be lords of the world’s commerce, conquering England, the former mistress of the seas, in a bloodless struggle.  And are they going to risk all this—­like a gambler who stakes his entire fortune on a single card—­in a struggle that might result unfavorably?” . . .

“No, war,” insisted the Counsellor furiously, “preventive war.  We live surrounded by our enemies, and this state of things cannot go on.  It is best to end it at once.  Either they or we!  Germany feels herself strong enough to challenge the world.  We’ve got to put an end to this Russian menace!  And if France doesn’t keep herself quiet, so much the worse for her! . . .  And if anyone else . . .  Anyone dares to come in against us, so much the worse for him!  When I set up a new machine in my shops, it is to make it produce unceasingly.  We possess the finest army in the world, and it is necessary to give it exercise that it may not rust out.”

He then continued with heavy emphasis, “They have put a band of iron around us in order to throttle us.  But Germany has a strong chest and has only to expand in order to burst its bands.  We must awake before they manacle us in our sleep.  Woe to those who then oppose us! . . .”

Desnoyers felt obliged to reply to this arrogance.  He had never seen the iron circle of which the Germans were complaining.  The nations were merely unwilling to continue living, unsuspecting and inactive, before boundless German ambition.  They were simply preparing to defend themselves against an almost certain attack.  They wished to maintain their dignity, repeatedly violated under most absurd pretexts.

“I wonder if it is not the others,” he concluded, “who are obliged to defend themselves because you represent a menace to the world!”

An invisible hand sought his under the table, as it had some nights before, to recommend prudence; but now he clasped it forcibly with the authority of a right acquired.

“Oh, sir!” sighed the sweet Bertha, “to talk like that, a youth so distinguished who has . . .”

She was not able to finish, for her husband interrupted.  They were no longer in American waters, and the Counsellor expressed himself with the rudeness of a master of his house.