of them, Gilbert and Henry became
friendly. There was a schoolmaster who made a profession of
mountain-climbing and a hobby of religion; and a doctor who told comic
stories and talked with good temper about Home Rule, to which he was
opposed; and a splendid old man, with his wife, who was interested in
co-operation and was eager to limit armaments; and a wine merchant from
Liverpool who had come to the conclusion that the world, on the whole,
was quite a decent place to live in; and a dreadful little stockbroker
who belonged to the Bloody school of politicians and talked about the
Empire as if it were a music-hall; and an agent of some sort from
Manchester who had reached that stage of prosperity at which he was
beginning to wonder whether, after all, Nonconformity was not a grievous
heresy and the Church of England a sure means of salvation. And there
were others, vague people of the middle class, kindly and comfortable
and inarticulate, with no particular opinions on anything except the
desirability of four good meals every day and a month's holiday in the
summer. There were daughters, too ... all sorts and conditions of
daughters! Some that were hearty and athletic, living either in the sea
or on the golf-links; and others that were full of their sex, unable to
forget that men are men and women are women, and never the two shall
come together but there shall be wooing and marrying.... There were a
few who were eager to use their minds ... and they quoted their parents
and the morning papers to Gilbert and Henry....

Surprisingly, their feeling about the Howth gun-raid became cool. In
that exquisite sunlight, beneath the wide reach of blue sky, it was
impossible to experience rancour or maintain anger. They swam and basked
and swam again, and let their eyes look gladly on young shapely girls,
running across the grassy tops of the piled rocks, and were sure that
there could be nothing on earth more beautiful than the spectacle of
pink arms gleaming through white muslin, unless it might be the full
brown ears of wheat now bending in the ripening rays of sunshine.... And
again, after dinner, they would sit in a high, grassy corner of the bay,
listening to the lap of the sea beneath them, while the stars threw
their faint reflections on the returning tide....

Exquisite peace and quiet, long days of rich pleasure and sweet nights
of rest, kindliness and laughter and the friendly word of casual
acquaintances ... and over