ur
attitude toward all the parasitical occupations, and paid absurd
tributes of respect to many of those who waxed fat upon pandering to our
weaknesses. This passed away now, like a single night's dream, and
incidentally gave rise to a certain amount of complaining from those who
suffered by it. But the public was no more inclined to heed these
complainings than it was to fritter away its time and substance in
drinking-bars or in places of amusement. The famous "Middle-class
Music-halls" faded quickly into the limbo of forgotten failures, and the
most popular of public performers were those--and they were not a
few--who forsook grease-paint for khaki, and posturing on stages for
exercising on rifle-ranges and drill-grounds.

The word "Puritanism" was still a term of reproach then, by virtue of
its old associations; but, as we see things nowadays, there is room only
for gladness in admitting that the wave of feeling which swept through
the homes of England in the wake of the Canadian preachers, _The
Citizens_, and the organizers of the village rifle corps, was in very
truth a mighty revival of Puritanism, backed by the newly awakened
twentieth-century spirit of Imperial patriotism, with its recognition of
the duty of loyalty, not alone to country, but to race and Empire. Yes,
it was true Puritanism--stern, unfaltering Puritanism; and it came to
England not a day too soon. Without it, we could never have been purged
of our insensate selfishness; without it, the loose agglomeration of
states, then called the British Empire, could never have been welded
into the State; without it, the great events of that year would have
been impossible, and the dominion of the English-speaking peoples must,
ere this, have become no more than a matter of historical interest.

XII

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

Stern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear
The Godhead's most benignant grace;
Nor know we anything so fair
As is the smile upon thy face:
Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,
And fragrance in thy footing treads;
Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;
And the most ancient Heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.

_Ode to Duty._

I suffered no change so far as Constance Grey's demeanour to me was
concerned; but certainly John Crondall had altered since the day upon
which I had so inopportunely entered his room when Constance was with
him. A