Once only, when a number of men were shouting 'POGGI-BON-SI,' like a
war-cry to the clank of bronze, did I open my eyes sleepily to see a
hill, a castle wall, many cypresses, and a strange tower bulging out
at the top (such towers I learned were the feature of Tuscany). Then
in a moment, as it seemed, I awoke in the station of Siena, where the
railway ends and goes no farther.
It was still only morning; but the glare was beyond bearing as I
passed through the enormous gate of the town, a gate pierced in high
and stupendous walls that are here guarded by lions. In the narrow
main street there was full shade, and it was made cooler by the
contrast of the blaze on the higher storeys of the northern side. The
wonders of Siena kept sleep a moment from my mind. I saw their great
square where a tower of vast height marks the guildhall. I heard Mass
in a chapel of their cathedral: a chapel all frescoed, and built, as
it were, out of doors, and right below the altar-end or choir. I noted
how the city stood like a queen of hills dominating all Tuscany: above
the Elsa northward, southward above the province round Mount Amiato.
And this great mountain I saw also hazily far off on the horizon. I
suffered the vulgarities of the main street all in English and
American, like a show. I took my money and changed it; then, having so
passed not a full hour, and oppressed by weariness, I said to myself:
'After all, my business is not with cities, and already I have seen
far off the great hill whence one can see far off the hills that
overhang Rome.'
With this in my mind I wandered out for a quiet place, and found it in
a desolate green to the north of the city, near a huge, old red-brick
church like a barn. A deep shadow beneath it invited me in spite of
the scant and dusty grass, and in this country no one disturbs the
wanderer. There, lying down, I slept without dreams till evening.
AUCTOR. Turn to page 94.
LECTOR. I have it. It is not easy to watch the book in two places at
once; but pray continue.
AUCTOR. Note the words from the eighth to the tenth lines.
LECTOR. Why?
AUCTOR. They will make what follows seem less abrupt.
Once there was a man dining by himself at the Cafe Anglais, in the
days when people went there. It was a full night, and he sat alone at
a small table, when there entered a very big man in a large fur coat.
The big man looked round annoyed, because there was no room, and the
first man very courteously offered him a seat at his little table.
They sat down and ate and talked of several things; among others, of
Bureaucracy. The first maintained that Bureaucracy was the curse of
France.
'Men are governed by it like sheep. The administrator, however humble,
is a despot; most people will even run forward to meet him halfway,
like the servile dogs they are,' said he.
'No,' answered the Man in the Big Fur Coat, 'I should say men were
governed just by the ordinary human sense of authority. I have no
theories. I say they recognize authority and obey it. Whether it is
bureaucratic or not is merely a question of form.'
At this moment there came in a tall, rather stiff Englishman. He also
was put out at finding no room. The two men saw the manager approach
him; a few words were passed, and a card; then the manager suddenly
smiled, bowed, smirked, and finally went up to the table and begged
that the Duke of Sussex might be allowed to share it. The Duke hoped
he did not incommode these gentlemen. They assured him that, on the
contrary, they esteemed his presence a favour.
'It is our prerogative,' said the Man in the Big Fur Coat, 'to be the
host Paris entertaining her Guest.'
They would take no denial; they insisted on the Duke's dining with
them, and they told him what they had just been discussing. The Duke
listened to their theories with some _morgue,_ much _spleen,_ and no
little _phlegm,_ but with _perfect courtesy,_ and then, towards the
coffee, told them in fluent French with a strong accent, his own
opinion. (He had had eight excellent courses; Yquem with his fish, the
best Chambertin during the dinner, and a glass of wonderful champagne
with his dessert.) He spoke as follows, with a slight and rather hard
smile:
'My opinion may seem to you impertinent, but I believe nothing more
subtly and powerfully affects men than the aristocratic feeling. Do
not misunderstand me,' he added, seeing that they would protest; 'it
is not my own experience alone that guides me. All history bears
witness to the same truth.'
The simple-minded Frenchmen put down this infatuation to the Duke's
early training, little knowing that our English men of rank are the
simplest fellows in the world, and are quite indifferent to their
titles save in business matters.
The Frenchmen paid the bill, and they all three went on to the
Boulevard.
'Now,' said the first man to his two companions, 'I will give you a
practical example of what I meant when I said that Bureaucracy
governed mankind.'
He went up to the wall of the Credit Lyonnais, put the forefinger of
either hand against it, about twenty-five centimetres apart, and at a
level of about a foot above his eyes. Holding his fingers thus he
gazed at them, shifting them slightly from time to time and moving his
glance from one to the other rapidly.
