Just a fistful of flakes will do! [ He closes Iris' photo back in the pages of his journal and flaps the whole book like a fan against the heat. ]

Come now, even a resolute general like yourself didn't emerge from the womb burdened with grim purpose. Surely you enjoyed a childhood in the interim.

[ His head cocks like a curious dog. Or a man who never fully grew out of his own childhood. ] How did the young Beatrix while away the idle days of her youth?