to drink tea, Miss Burnett?"

"I am not pretending; I am drinking it," she smiled.

"Yes, yes," I said, "but you know what I mean. It seems to me so
un-German!"

They both looked at me rather hard.

"I'm afraid," said Miss Burnett, "that we of the secret service grow
terribly cosmopolitan. Our habits are those of no country--or rather
of all countries."

"I had almost forgotten," said Tiel, "that I once thought and felt like
Mr Belke." And then he added this singular opinion: "It is Germany's
greatest calamity--greater even than the coming in of Britain against
her, or the Battle of the Marne--that those who guide her destinies
have not forgotten it too."

"What do you mean?" I demanded, a little indignantly I must own.

"At every tea-party for many years Germany has talked about what
interested herself--and that was chiefly war. At no tea-party has she
tried to learn the thoughts and interests of the other guests. In
consequence she does not yet understand the forces against her, why
they act as they do, and how strong they are. But her enemies
understand too well."

"You mean that she has been honest and they dishonest?"

"Yes," said Miss Burnett promptly and with a little smile, "my brother
means that in order really to deceive people one has to act as we are
acting now."

I laughed.

"But unfortunately now there is no one to deceive!"

She laughed too.

"But they might suddenly walk in!"

Tiel was not a frequent laugher, but he condescended to smile.

"Remember, Belke," he said, "I warned you on the first night we met
that you must not only talk but think in English. If we don't do that
constantly and continually when no one is watching us, how can we count
on doing it constantly and continually when some one _may_ be watching
us?"

"Personally I should think it sufficient to wait till some one _was_
watching," I said.

"There speaks Germany," smiled Tiel.

"Germany disdains to act a part all the time!" I cried.

I confess I was nettled by his tone, but his charming "sister" disarmed
me instantly.

"Mr Belke means that he wants footlights and an orchestra and an
audience before he mutters 'Hush! I hear her coming!' He doesn't
believe in saying 'Hush!' in the corner of every railway carriage or
under his umbrella. And I really think it makes him much less alarming
company!"

"You explain things very happily, Eileen," said Tiel.

I was watching her face (for which there was ev