k it was a great deal of good. Her manner toward me,
boisterous and quite out of keeping with our respective positions and
sexes, could almost be called friendly. During the return to Southampton
she constantly clapped me on the back and shouted, "It's over, Weener;
it's all over now."

"But it isnt over," I protested. "Your spray hadnt the slightest direct
effect on the Grass."

"Oh, that. That's nothing. A mere impediment. A matter of time only."

"Time only! Good God, do you realize the Grass is halfway through
Ireland? That we are surrounded now on four sides?"

"A lastminute rescue is quite in the best tradition. Don't disturb
yourself; you will live to gloat over the deaths of better men."

I urged the PM to be cautious about overoptimism in giving out the news.
He nodded his head solemnly in agreement, but he evidently couldnt
communicate whatever wisdom he possessed to the BBC announcer, for he,
in butter voice, spoke as though Miss Francis had actually destroyed a
great section of the weed upon the French coast. There were celebrations
in the streets of London and a vast crowd visited the cenotaph and sang
_Rule Britannia_.

_September 18_: Hoping to find F in a calmer mood, I asked her today
just how long she meant by "a matter of time"? She shrugged it off. "Not
more than four or five months," she said blithely.

"In a month at most the Grass will be in Britain."

"Let it come," she responded callously. "We shall take the _Sisyphus_
and conclude our work there."

"But millions will die in the meantime," I protested.

She turned on me with what I can only describe as tigrish ferocity. "Did
you think of the millions you condemned to death when you refused to
sell concentrates to the Asiatic refugees?"

"How could I sell to people who couldnt buy?"

"And the millions who died because you refused them employment?"

"Am I responsible for those too shiftless to fend for themselves?"

"'Am I my brother's keeper?' If fifty million Englishmen die because I
cannot hasten the process of trial and error, the guilt is mine and I
admit it. I do not seek to exculpate myself by pointing a finger at you
or by silly and pompous evasions of my responsibility. If the Grass
comes before I am ready, the fault is mine. In the meantime, while one
creature remains alive, even if his initials be A W, I shall seek to
preserve him. As long as there is a foothold on land I shall try on
land; and when that fails we shall b