lly
know what is happening. No hell ever invented is as bad as war. It is
the maddest and ghastliest crime ever known, the greatest anachronism
ever conceived. It mocks everything high and holy; it is the devil
incarnate! But one can't close one's eyes to facts. You remember what
that preacher man said in his sermon. He told us that Almighty God often
kept things from men and nations until they were ready, and that if, as
sometimes happened, things came before a people were ready, they proved
curses and not blessings. For my own part I believe we shall have
victory as soon as we are ready for it; but are we ready?'

'Then what do you believe will happen?'

'I am afraid we have dark days before us. As a nation we are putting
material gain before moral fitness. The people who are making fortunes
out of our national curses are fighting like death for their hand, and
the nation seems to believe in a policy of _laissez faire_. If a man is
in earnest about these things, he is called a fanatic. Purge England of
her sins, my friend, and God will give us the victory.'

'That's as shadowy as a cloud, and has about as much foundation as a
cloud,' I retorted.

'Perhaps events will prove that I am right. Don't let us imagine that
God has no other means of working except through big guns. I have read a
good deal of history lately, and I have seen that, more than once, when
men and nations have been sure that certain things would happen, Almighty
God has laughed at them. God answered Job out of the whirlwind; that's
what He'll do to England.'

I laughed incredulously.

'All right,' he went on. 'It is very easy to laugh, but I should not be
at all surprised if Russia were to make a separate peace with Germany, or
if something were to happen to disorganize her forces. Would not that
make a tremendous difference to the war?'

'Of course it would, but Russia will make no separate peace, and nothing
will happen. Russia's as safe as houses, and as steady as a rock. Don't
talk nonsense, old man, and don't conjure up impossible contingencies to
bolster up your arguments.'

He was silent a few seconds, then he turned to me and said quietly, 'You
know the country pretty well, don't you?'

'Pretty well, I think.'

'Do you think the condition of London represents the nation as a whole?'

'Yes, I think so. I don't say that such things as we witnessed down by
Waterloo or in those so-called studios around Chelsea can