a soldier."

Joan laughed. "Difficult to get anything else, just at present," she
said. "It's the soldiers I'm looking to for help. I don't think the men
who have been there will want their sons to go. It's the women I'm
afraid of."

Flossie caught sight of the clock and jumped up. "Who was it said that
woman would be the last thing man would civilize?" she asked.

"It sounds like Meredith," suggested Joan. "I am not quite sure."

"Well, he's wrong, anyhow," retorted Flossie. "It's no good our waiting
for man. He is too much afraid of us to be of any real help to us. We
shall have to do it ourselves." She gave Joan a hug and was gone.

Phillips was still abroad with the Army of Occupation. He had tried to
get out of it, but had not succeeded. He held it to be gaoler's work;
and the sight of the starving populace was stirring in him a fierce
anger.

He would not put up again for Parliament. He was thinking of going back
to his old work upon the Union. "Parliament is played out," he had
written her. "Kings and Aristocracies have served their purpose and have
gone, and now the Ruling Classes, as they call themselves, must be
content to hear the bell toll for them also. Parliament was never
anything more than an instrument in their hands, and never can be. What
happens? Once in every five years you wake the people up: tell them the
time has come for them to exercise their Heaven-ordained privilege of
putting a cross against the names of some seven hundred gentlemen who
have kindly expressed their willingness to rule over them. After that,
you send the people back to sleep; and for the next five years these
seven hundred gentlemen, consulting no one but themselves, rule over the
country as absolutely as ever a Caesar ruled over Rome. What sort of
Democracy is that? Even a Labour Government--supposing that in spite of
the Press it did win through--what would be its fate? Separated from its
base, imprisoned within those tradition-haunted walls, it would lose
touch with the people, would become in its turn a mere oligarchy. If the
people are ever to govern they must keep their hand firmly upon the
machine; not remain content with pulling a lever and then being shown the
door."

She had sent a note by messenger to Mary Stopperton to say she was
coming. Mary had looked very fragile the last time she had seen her,
just before leaving for France; and she had felt a fear. Mary had
answered in her ne