s of aliens, and
'armless little German bakers, an' Austrians, and what-not: they get a
crool time. It's their misfortune, not their fault, that's what I think;
and the way they get served--well, it makes you ashamed o' bein' English
sometimes--it does straight: And the women are the worst. I said to my
wife only last night, I said: 'They call themselves Christians,' I said,
'but for all the charity that's in 'em they might as well be Huns.' She
couldn't see it-not she!' Well, why do they drop bombs?' she says.
'What!' I said, 'those English wives and bakers drop bombs? Don't be
silly,' I said. 'They're as innocent as we.' It's the innocent that gets
punished for the guilty. 'But they're all spies,' she says. 'Oh!' I
said, 'old lady! Now really! At your time of life!' But there it is;
you can't get a woman to see reason. It's readin' the papers. I often
think they must be written by women--beggin' your pardon, miss--but
reely, the 'ysterics and the 'atred--they're a fair knockout. D'you find
much hatred in your household, miss?"

Noel shook her head. "No; my father's a clergyman, you see."

"Ah!" said the policeman. And in the glance he bestowed on her could be
seen an added respect.

"Of course," he went on, "you're bound to have a sense of justice against
these Huns; some of their ways of goin' on have been above the limit.
But what I always think is--of course I don't say these things--no use to
make yourself unpopular--but to meself I often think: Take 'em man for
man, and you'd find 'em much the same as we are, I daresay. It's the
vicious way they're brought up, of actin' in the mass, that's made 'em
such a crool lot. I see a good bit of crowds in my profession, and I've
a very low opinion of them. Crowds are the most blunderin' blighted
things that ever was. They're like an angry woman with a bandage over
her eyes, an' you can't have anything more dangerous than that. These
Germans, it seems, are always in a crowd. They get a state o' mind read
out to them by Bill Kaser and all that bloody-minded lot, an' they never
stop to think for themselves."

"I suppose they'd be shot if they did," said Noel.

"Well, there is that," said the policeman reflectively. "They've brought
discipline to an 'igh pitch, no doubt. An' if you ask me,"--he lowered
his voice till it was almost lost in his chin-strap, "we'll be runnin'
'em a good second 'ere, before long. The things we 'ave to protect now
are