s magnetism had drawn her he could do with her
as he would?

And then very quietly he spoke, and she experienced an odd revulsion of
feeling that was almost disappointment.

"Have you been reading the papers lately?"

She had not. Jeanie occupied all her waking thoughts.

He glanced down at the sheet he held. "There is going to be a bust-up on
the Continent," he said, and there was that in his tone--a grim
elation--which puzzled her at the moment. "The mightiest bust-up the
world has ever known. We're in for it, Avery; in for the very deuce of a
row." His voice vibrated suddenly. He stopped as though to check some
headlong force that threatened to carry him away.

Avery stood still, feeling a sick horror of impending disaster at her
heart. "What can you mean?" she said.

He leaned his hands upon the table facing her, and she saw in his eyes
the primitive, savage joy of battle. "I mean war," he said. "Oh, it's
horrible; yes, of course it's horrible. But it'll bring us to our senses.
It'll make men of us yet."

She shrank from his look. "Piers! Not--not a European war!"

He straightened himself slowly. "Yes," he said. "It will be that.
But there's nothing to be scared about. It'll be the salvation of
the Empire."

"Piers!" she gasped again through white lips. "But modern warfare! Modern
weapons! It's Germany of course?"

"Yes, Germany." He stretched up his arms with a wide gesture and let them
fall. "Germany who is going to cut out all the rot of party politics and
bind us together as one man! Germany who is going to avert civil war and
teach us to love our neighbours! Nothing short of this would have saved
us. We've been a mere horde of chattering monkeys lately. Now--all thanks
to Germany!--we're going to be men!"

"Or murderers!" said Avery.

The word broke from her involuntarily, she scarcely knew that she had
uttered it until she saw his face. Then in a flash she saw what she had
done, for he had the sudden tragic look of a man who has received his
death-wound.

He made her a curious stiff bow as if he bent himself with difficulty.
His face at that moment was whiter than hers, but his eyes glowed red
with a deep anger.

"I shall remember that," he said, "when I go to fight for my country."

With the words he turned to the door. But she cried after him, dismayed,
incoherent.

"Oh Piers, you know--you know--I didn't mean that!"

He did not pause or look back. "Nevertheless you said it," he rejoine