e understand you.'

He looked at me steadily for a few seconds, and then went on quietly, 'I
fancy there is no need to tell you about that.'

'And yet you stand by and see Springfield carry her off before your eyes,
and Springfield is a rotter.'

'Yes, that's just what he is. But he can't harm her yet.'

'What do you mean by "_yet_"?'

'I can't put it into words, Luscombe. My first impulse when I saw them
together just now was to go to the table and denounce him,--to warn her
against him. But it would have been madness. The time is not yet come.'

'Meanwhile, he will marry her,' I said.

'No, he won't. I am afraid he has fascinated her, and I am sure he means
to marry her,--I saw it down in Devonshire. But there is no danger yet;
the danger will come by and by,--when or how I don't know. It will come,
and I must be ready for it. I will be ready, too. Meantime, I have
other things to think about. I am worried, my friend, worried.'

'What is worrying you?'

'I am going back to duty to-morrow, but from what I can hear I am to be
treated as a special case. My colonel has said all sorts of kind things
about me, I find. But that's not what I am thinking about now. This war
is maddening me,--this constant carnage, with all the misery it entails.
You asked me some time ago what I thought about the things we had
seen,--what my impressions were, and I told you that I could not
co-ordinate my ideas, could not look at things in their true perspective.
I say, Luscombe, Admiral Beatty was right.'

'What do you mean?'

'Do you remember what he said?--"Just so long as England remains in a
state of religious indifference, just so long as the present conditions
obtain, will the war continue."'

'Don't let us talk about that now.'

'But I must, my dear chap. I am going back to duty to-morrow, and I want
to realize the inwardness of all we have seen. One thing I am determined
on.'

'What is that?'

'To fight this drink business as long as I have breath. It is doing us
more harm than Germany. I am told there is danger of a food famine. It
is said that bread is going to be scarce,--that people may be put on
short rations. Of course we only hear hints now, but there are
suggestions that Germany is going to pursue her submarine policy with
more vigour, so as to starve us. A man I met in the hotel a little while
ago told me that they were going to sink all merchant ships at sight,
regardless of nationality