l
go to war with you and I will tell you why. There are no secrets about
this sort of thing. Every politician who is worth his salt knows them.
The only difficulty is to know when a country is in earnest, and how far
it will go. That is the value of our meeting. That is what I am here to
say. We shall go to war with you, Monsieur Douaille, to get Calais, and
when we've got Calais--oh, my God!" Selingman almost reverently
concluded, "then our solemn task will be begun."

"England!" Monsieur Douaille murmured.

There was a brief pause. Selingman had seemed, for a moment, to have
passed into the clouds. There was a sort of gloomy rapture upon his
face. He caught up Douaille's last word and repeated it.

"England! England, and through her...."

He moved to the sideboard and filled his tumbler with wine. When he came
back to his place, his expression had lightened.

"Ah, well! dear Monsieur Douaille," he exclaimed, patting the other's
shoulder in friendly fashion, "to-night we merely chatter. To-night we
are here to make friends, to gain each the confidence of the other. To
ourselves let us pretend that we are little boys, playing the game of
our nation--France, Germany, and Russia. Germany and Russia, to be frank
with you, are waiting for one last word from Germany's father, something
splendid and definite to offer. What we would like France to do, while
France loses its money at roulette and flirts with the pretty ladies at
Ciro's, is to try and accustom itself not to an alliance with
Germany--no! Nothing so utopian as that. The lion and the lamb may
remain apart. They may agree to be friends, they may even wave paws at
one another, but I do not suggest that they march side by side. What we
ask of France is that she looks the other way. It is very easy to look
the other way. She might look, for instance--towards Egypt."

[Illustration: "What we ask of France is that she looks the other way."]

There was a sudden glitter in the eyes of Monsieur Douaille. Selingman
saw it and pressed on.

"There are laurels to be won which will never fade," he continued,
setting down his empty tumbler, "laurels to be won by that statesman of
your country, the little boy France, who is big enough and strong enough
to stand with his feet upon the earth and proclaim--'I am for France and
my own people, and my own people only, and I will make them great
through all the centuries by seeing the truth and leading them towards
it, single-pu