of fact to say that, in
the very year of my arrival in London, the party which ruled the State
was a party whose members openly avowed and boasted of their opposition
to British dominion, and that in terms, not less, but far more sweeping
than mine in talking to Sylvia among the pines at Weybridge.

But if Sylvia appreciated and sympathized in the matter of my
sermonizing, the rest of the family neither approved the sermons nor
Sylvia's interest in them. I was made to feel in various ways that no
import must be attached to my attentions to Sylvia. Marjory began to
shadow her sister in the daytime, and, as she was frankly rather bored
by me, I could not but detect the parental will in this.

Then with regard to my social and political views, Mr. Wheeler joined
with his son in openly deriding them. In Leslie's case the thing never
went beyond friendly banter. Leslie had no political opinions; he
laughed joyously at the mere notion of bothering his head about such
matters for a moment. And, in his way, he represented an enormous
section of the younger generation of Englishmen in this. The father, on
the other hand, was equally typical of his class and generation. This
was how he talked to me over his port:--

"I tell you what it is, you know, Mordan: you're a regular firebrand,
you know; by Jove, you are; an out-and-out Socialistic Radical: that's
what you are. By gad, sir, I don't mince my words. I consider
that--er--opinions like yours are a danger to the country; I do,
indeed; a danger to the country, and--er--to the--to the Empire. I do,
by gad. And as for your notions about disarmament and that, why, even if
our army reductions are justifiable, which, upon my word, I very much
doubt, it's ridiculous to suppose we can afford to cut down our Navy.
No, sir, the British Navy is Britain's safeguard, and it ought not to be
tampered with. I'm an out-and-out Imperialist myself, and--er--I can
tell you I have no patience with your Little Englandism."

I am not at all sure whether the class Mr. Wheeler belonged to was not
almost the most dangerous class of all. The recent elections showed this
class to be a minority. Of course, this section had its strong men, but
that it also included a large number of men like Leslie's father was a
fact--a fact which yielded pitiful evidence of its weakness. These men
called themselves "out-and-out Imperialists," and had not a notion of
even the meaning of the word they used. Still less ha