ved
into somnolence and the tempo of daily life slackened until it scarcely
seemed to move at all. The waves of anxiety, suspicion and distrust of
an earlier decade calmed into peaceful ripples, hardly noticeable in a
pondlike existence.

No longer beset by thoughts or fears of wars, nations relaxed their
pride, armies were reduced to little more than palaceguards, brassbands
and parade units; while navies were kept up--if periodic painting and
retaining in commission a few obsolete cruisers and destroyers be so
termed--only to patrol the Atlantic and Pacific shores of the lost
hemisphere.

The struggle for existence almost disappeared; the wagescales set by
Consolidated Pemmican were enough to sustain life, and in a world of
limited horizons men became content with that. The bickering
characteristic of industrial dispute vanished; along with it went the
outmoded weapon of the tradesunion. It was a halcyon world and if, as
cranks complained, illiteracy increased rapidly, it could only be
because with everyman's livelihood assured his natural indolence took
the upper hand and he not only lost refinements superficially acquired,
but was uninterested in teaching them to his children.

_78._ I don't know how I can express the golden, sunlit quality of this
period. It was not an heroic age, no great deeds were performed, no
conflicts resolved, no fundamentshaking ideas broached. Quiet, peace,
content--these were the keywords of the era. Preoccupation with politics
and panaceas gave place to healthier interests: sports and pageants and
giant fairs. Men became satisfied with their lot and if they to a great
extent discarded speculation and disquieting philosophies they found a
useful substitute in quiet meditation.

Until now I had never had the time to live in a manner befitting my
station; but with my affairs running so smoothly that even Stuart Thario
and Tony Preblesham found idle time, I began to turn my attention to the
easier side of life. Of course I never considered making my permanent
home anywhere but in England; for all its parochialism and oddities it
was the nearest I could come to approximating my own country.

I bought a gentleman's park in Hampshire and had the outmoded house torn
down. It had been built in Elizabethan times and was cold, drafty and
uncomfortable, with not one modern convenience. For a time I considered
preserving it intact as a sort of museumpiece and building another home
for myself