on the horizon passed out of the mind of the
public. There had been that one flash, no more, and even that had not
been answered by any growl of thunder; the storm did not at once move
up and the heavens above were still clear and sunny by day, and
starry-kirtled at night. But here and there were those who, like Hermann
on the first announcement of the catastrophe, scented trouble, and
Michael, going to see Aunt Barbara one afternoon early in the second
week of July, found that she was one of them.

"I distrust it all, my dear," she said to him. "I am full of uneasiness.
And what makes me more uneasy is that they are taking it so quietly
at the Austrian Embassy and at the German. I dined at one Embassy
last night and at the other only a few nights ago, and I can't get
anybody--not even the most indiscreet of the Secretaries--to say a word
about it."

"But perhaps there isn't a word to be said," suggested Michael.

"I can't believe that. Austria cannot possibly let an incident of that
sort pass. There is mischief brewing. If she was merely intending to
insist--as she has every right to do--on an inquiry being held that
should satisfy reasonable demands for justice, she would have insisted
on that long ago. But a fortnight has passed now, and still she makes
no sign. I feel sure that something is being arranged. Dear me, I quite
forgot, Tony asked me not to talk about it. But it doesn't matter with
you."

"But what do you mean by something being arranged?" asked Michael.

She looked round as if to assure herself that she and Michael were
alone.

"I mean this: that Austria is being persuaded to make some outrageous
demand, some demand that no independent country could possibly grant."

"But who is persuading her?" asked Michael.

"My dear, you--like all the rest of England--are fast asleep. Who but
Germany, and that dangerous monomaniac who rules Germany? She has long
been wanting war, and she has only been delaying the dawning of Der Tag,
till all her preparations were complete, and she was ready to hurl her
armies, and her fleet too, east and west and north. Mark my words! She
is about ready now, and I believe she is going to take advantage of her
opportunity."

She leaned forward in her chair.

"It is such an opportunity as has never occurred before," she said, "and
in a hundred years none so fit may occur again. Here are we--England--on
the brink of civil war with Ireland and the Home Rulers; our hands are