Look fearlessly at the truth, but do not forget
that when we went it was for an ideal--just as years before, when North
and South fought the issue of preserving the Union, the impulse that
drove our fathers on to their deaths was their souls' demand of freedom
for the negro. By her delay was America defamed; by the spirit of her
coming was she great.'

Selwyn put down his pen, and rested his head between his hands. Ten
minutes passed before he looked up and began to write again.

'The war is over. _America is debtor to the world_. Read this, my
son, with both humility and pride--humility that it is so, pride that
we yet can pay.

'Those awful years while we stood apart, the homes of Britain gave
their sons--the sons for whom their parents yearned, as I am yearning
now for you. Through Britain's broken hearts, and through the grief of
women throughout the world, the youth of America were saved. I know
that we have our thousands of stricken homes and ruined lives, but the
end of the war left America debtor to civilisation, even though she
gave the strength which brought the war to an end.

'Faced with our indebtedness, what did we do?

'Europe lay stricken. The spectres of ruin, starvation, anarchy,
hovered about her form. The world was through with war; men groped for
light; and from the peoples of the earth a universal cry went up that
these things must not be.

'It was our chance. We still were strong. We held the charter of
mankind within our hands, and men looked to us. Over prostrate Europe
the conquering nations gathered, and men in all the distant corners of
the earth listened for the voice of him who would cry in the wilderness
that a new age was born.

'Vital days went by. At last the man who spoke for us outlined his
plan that all the Powers of the world should join together in a
covenant that war should be no more.

'Men waited, and still waited. The plan was argued, ridiculed,
applauded--and sucked of its inspiration by talk. Already the agony of
Man was hardening into the cynicism of despair. Nations that had bled
together grew wary and drew apart.

'And still men waited, for they knew that only America's voice could
allay the clamour. Then we spoke. Angered by the methods of our
leader, angered by the spirit of revenge that was settling over Europe,
angered by delay, once more we failed to see the great truths written
across the face of the sun.

'America--debtor to the world