The young men present had perhaps never heard of Meredith,
but they listened to Valery's story with awed respect. The con- versation turned, as was inevitable, to current politics. The young men of the resistance were demanding vengeance upon all col- laborators. Valery listened to them with patient and affectionate gentleness. " Vengeance," he said, " is a most ugly word—a word which does not seem to me wholly French. Let us speak rather of justice." A hush descended. And as I walked away with him, I remarked that one of the things which had saddened me on visiting Paris after these atrocious years was that the middle-aged had become so old, and that the young were already so elderly. " Yes," he said, " that is tragic, and it may even be true. There are moments even when I feel that I am the only young man left in France." I cast an amused glance at this man of seventy-five beside me ; his eyes glowed back at me. " And that," I said, " is assuredly a fact."
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