two years' experience in actual battle.

On a quiet byroad near headquarters town, where all the staff business
of General Headquarters was conducted, a wisp of a flag hung at the
entrance to the grounds of a small modern chateau. There seemed no place
in all France more isolated and tranquil, its size forbidding many
guests. It was such a house as some quiet, studious man might have
chosen to rest in during his summer holiday. The sound of the guns never
reached it; the rumble of army transport was unheard.

Should you go there to luncheon you would be received by a young aide
who, in army jargon, was known as a "crock"; that is, he had been
invalided as the result of wounds or exposure in the trenches and,
though unfit for active service, could still serve as aide to the
Commander-in-Chief. At the appointed minute of the hour, in keeping with
military punctuality, whether of generals or of curtains of fire, a man
with iron-gray hair, clear, kindly eyes, and an unmistakably strong
chin, came out of his office and welcomed the guests with simple
informality. He seemed to have left business entirely behind when he
left his desk. You knew him at once for the type of well-preserved
British officer who never neglects to keep himself physically fit. It
amounts to a talent with British officers to have gone through campaigns
in India and South Africa and yet always to appear as fresh as if they
had never known anything more strenuous than the leisurely life of an
English country gentleman.

I had always heard how hard Sir Douglas Haig worked, just as I had heard
how hard Sir William Robertson worked. Sir Douglas, too, showed no signs
of pressure, and naturally the masterful control of surroundings without
any seeming effort is a part of the equipment of military leaders. The