t for Stamfordham to be aware of his presence,
although, after all, there was no reason why he should not be. But
seeing Rendel standing speaking to Stamfordham at the door of the
brougham he conceived that he was probably coming in again directly, and
made up his mind to go in and see Gore at any rate if possible. He went
up the steps, therefore, and into the house, the front door being open.
It happened neither Rendel nor Stamfordham saw him enter, the former
having his back turned and blocking the view of the latter. Thacker,
with intense interest, was watching the development of affairs from the
dining-room window, and did not see Pateley go in either.

"Have you done the thing?" said Stamfordham quickly.

"All but," Rendel said.

"Well, I want you to add this," said Stamfordham. "Get in and drive back
with me, will you? I have so little time."

Rendel jumped in, and the brougham moved past the window just as Sir
William Gore, who had painfully pulled himself out of his chair, looked
out, petrified with surprise at the unexplained crisis that seemed to
have come upon the household. "Stamfordham!" he said to himself, "and
Frank! What are the Imperialists hatching now, I wonder?" and he
mechanically looked round him at Rendel's writing-table. It was,
however, closed and forbidding, save for a little corner of white paper
that was sticking out under the revolving flap. By one of those strange,
almost unconscious impulses which may suddenly overtake the best of us
at times, Gore put out his hand and pulled out the paper. It was quite
loose and came away in his hand. What was it? He looked at it vaguely.
Then gradually it became clear. A map?... yes, it was a rough map, with
a thick line drawn from the top to the bottom down the middle of it;
names to the right and the left. England? Germany? And what were those
words written underneath? _What?_ Was that how Germany was going to be
'squared?' And sheer excitement gave him strength to grasp more or less
the meaning of what he saw. If Africa were going to be divided, if
Germany and England were agreeing to that division, it meant Peace.
There was no doubt of it. But had the Imperialists suddenly gone on to
the side of peace? Had they snatched that trump card from their
adversaries and were they going to play it? Sir William stood gazing at
the paper. Then as he heard some one at the door of the room he
suddenly realised what he had done. He instinctively clutched the pa