islike us, but, for the present at any rate, there
will be no leagues against us. No, there is one rock on which our
attempt at assimilation will founder or find firm anchorage."

"And that is--?"

"The youth of the country, the generation that is at the threshold now.
It is them that we must capture. We must teach them to learn, and coax
them to forget. In course of time Anglo-Saxon may blend with German, as
the Elbe Saxons and the Bavarians and Swabians have blended with the
Prussians into a loyal united people under the sceptre of the
Hohenzollerns. Then we should be doubly strong, Rome and Carthage rolled
into one, an Empire of the West greater than Charlemagne ever knew. Then
we could look Slav and Latin and Asiatic in the face and keep our place
as the central dominant force of the civilised world."

The speaker paused for a moment and drank a deep draught of wine, as
though he were invoking the prosperity of that future world-power. Then
he resumed in a more level tone:

"On the other hand, the younger generation of Britons may grow up in
hereditary hatred, repulsing all our overtures, forgetting nothing and
forgiving nothing, waiting and watching for the time when some weakness
assails us, when some crisis entangles us, when we cannot be everywhere
at once. Then our work will be imperilled, perhaps undone. There lies
the danger, there lies the hope, the younger generation."

"There is another danger," said the banker, after he had pondered over
von Kwarl's remarks for a moment or two amid the incense-clouds of a fat
cigar; "a danger that I foresee in the immediate future; perhaps not so
much a danger as an element of exasperation which may ultimately defeat
your plans. The law as to military service will have to be promulgated
shortly, and that cannot fail to be bitterly unpopular. The people of
these islands will have to be brought into line with the rest of the
Empire in the matter of military training and military service, and how
will they like that? Will not the enforcing of such a measure enfuriate
them against us? Remember, they have made great sacrifices to avoid the
burden of military service."

"Dear God," exclaimed Herr von Kwarl, "as you say, they have made
sacrifices on that altar!"

CHAPTER VII: THE LURE

Cicely had successfully insisted on having her own way concerning the
projected supper-party; Yeovil had said nothing further in opposition to
it, whatever his feeling