on: THE ART OF WINDOW-DRESSING.

_Shop-Manager (sternly, to assistant)._ "SURELY, MR. JENKINS, YOU OUGHT
TO KNOW BETTER THAN TO PUT THE KITCHEN COBBLES IN THE CENTRE VASE.
REMEMBER IN FUTURE THAT IT IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY YOU SHOULD ALWAYS
STRIKE THE KEY-NOTE WITH THE _SELECTED NUTS_."

* * * * *

Illustration: EPILOGUE.

* * * * *

MORE MUNITIONS OF PEACE.

(_An Episode in the Camp of the Nationalist Volunteers._)

Several further months had elapsed in the history of the scheme for the
"better government of Ireland." The Home Rule Bill had been read for the
third time in the Inferior Chamber, but, apart from this conciliatory
action, no effective attempt had been made to avert the horrors of Civil
War.

Meanwhile two coups had been planned, of which the one failed and the
other succeeded. And during the arrangements for the first coup (for it
got no further than the preparatory stage--and even this was denied) it
was revealed that British officers were not very greatly inclined to
shoot down their fellow-countrymen for the sake of the _beaux jeux_ of a
political party. And for this the politicians of that party, selecting
the worst name they could think of, described these officers as
politicians. And the cry of "The Army _v._ the People," started by a
Labour Member (who wore a large hat), and supported by the FIRST LORD OF
THE ADMIRALTY (who wore a small one), was raised very high and then
dropped, as likely to prove inexpedient.

But the other coup (which succeeded) was a very clever feat of
gun-running on the part of the Ulster Volunteers. And, the law having
been broken, the Government, as its guardian, determined to take no
punitive measures--an attitude that was repellent both to Sir WILLIAM
BYLES and to Mr. NEIL PRIMROSE.

And now there grew up in each political party a body of rebellion. For
on the Liberal side there were those, notorious at other seasons for
their advocacy of peace at whatever charges, who gave out that there
were worse things than Civil War, and one of the worse things was the
stultification of their own projects, or, as they put it, of the Will of
the People; though they showed no strong anxiety to discover, by the
usual tests, what the Will of the People might actually be in the
matter.

And on the Unionist side there were those who said that they would do
nothing to provoke Civil War, but that, since it took