Then I asked him for the latest news from the seat of war.
"Well," he said, "we are forbidden to tell the news, although there
isn't any. But if you were to go to Newport you would see a big British
cruiser lying there. And if you had your glass with you you could read
her name." He gave her name, but I have forgotten it. "It is supposed to
be a secret, and has not been in the papers, but everybody at Newport
knows it. They can't help it. The officers go about very swagger and
very stiff, carrying little canes. You may see me carrying a little cane
one of these days, but I have not yet arrived at that dignity--or folly,
whichever you call it."