"
"And what do you think would be the outcome of such a conflict?" I asked,
with my soul divided between fear of it and the perception of its
excellence as material. My fancy vividly sketched the outline of a story
which should forecast the struggle and its event, somewhat on the plan of
the Battle of Dorking.
"We should beat," said the banker, breaking his cigar-ash off with his
little finger; and I instantly cast him, with his ironic calm, for the
part of a great patrician leader in my "Fall of the Republic." Of course,
I disguised him somewhat, and travestied his worldly bonhomie with the
bluff sang-froid of the soldier; these things are easily done.
"What makes you think we should beat?" asked the manufacturer, with a
certain curiosity.
"Well, all the good jingo reasons: we have got the materials for beating.
Those fellows throw away their strength whenever they begin to fight, and
they've been so badly generalled, up to the present time, that they have
wanted to fight at the outset of every quarrel. They have been beaten in
every quarrel, but still they always want to begin by fighting. That is
all right.
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