Anyhow, he jerked me back to my position of host.

I made some sort of polite reply.

He smiled.
"You, my dear Meredyth, like the rest of the country, are half asleep.
In a few months' time you'll get the awakening of your life." He began to discourse on the diplomatic situation.

Months afterwards I remembered what he had said that night and how accurate had been his forecast.

He talked brilliantly for over an hour, during which, keenly interested in his arguments, I lost the puzzle of the man in admiration of the fine soldier and clear and daring thinker.