e cause for which you
are fighting. 'Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die,' says the
soldier in his brief intervals of release. And some of us at home went
more than half-way to meet him, imitating an attitude excusable in him
but not in us. And that attitude is bound to survive for a little time
the causes that induced it. But you must not forget that many of the
type which you are now attacking did noble work in the War; and they
will do it again."

"That may be," said the Cynic; "but is it necessary to have an orgy of
_Carmagnole_ in between?"

"I think perhaps it is like the case of a crew or a team going out of
training. They permit themselves a certain relaxation before they start
training for the next contest. But I think too that there is something
to be said for your reference to the _Carmagnole_. We are passing
through a phase of Revolution, very natural after a great upheaval. The
sense of freedom--the very thing for which we have been fighting--is apt
to turn the heads of the young and thoughtless. There is a spirit of
rebellion in the air, which at its worst takes the form of Bolshevism,
but here is seen in a relatively harmless shape as a general revolt
against social restriction, a general passion for what is known as 'a
good time.' In any case it is only a passing phase. Already there are
signs of a reaction from this reaction; of a return to the decency of
other days. They tell me, for a slight but significant indication, that
the waltz is coming back; that we may even look to see a revival of the,
minuet and pavane."

"Then it is just a question of a cycle of vogues? We are to be swayed by
recurring gusts of fashion, and not inspired by a fixed ideal."

"Fashion counts with us, of course, for we are human and some of us are
feminine. There was a fashion of patriotism as there is now a fashion of
something that might easily be mistaken for its opposite. But the range
of its influence is largely confined to a rather negligible element in
London, the most provincial of capitals. The Press--and notably the
Photographic Press--gives it a prominence out of all relation to its
importance. The great majority are untouched by it. They talk little
and they advertise less. But in a thousand quiet ways they are setting
themselves to make good."

"To make good money, you mean. Our world seems made up of profiteers and
of those who would be profiteers but can't, and so abuse those who can.
Can you name t