he imminence of civil strife, she would be unable
to come to the help of her allies until the allies were past helping.

For a moment only were seen those set stern features mad for war;
then, with a snap, Germany shut down her visor and stood with sword
unsheathed, waiting for the horror of the stupendous bloodshed which
she had made inevitable. Her legions gathered on the Eastern front
threatening war on Russia, and thus pulling France into the spreading
conflagration and into the midst of the flame she stood ready to cast
the torn-up fragments of the treaty that bound her to respect the
neutrality of Belgium.

All this week, while the flames of the flung fire-brand began to spread,
the English public waited, incredulous of the inevitable. Michael, among
them, found himself unable to believe even then that the bugles were
already sounding, and that the piles of shells in their wicker-baskets
were being loaded on to the military ammunition trains. But all the
ordinary interests in life, all the things that busily and contentedly
occupied his day, one only excepted, had become without savour. A dozen
times in the morning he would sit down to his piano, only to find
that he could not think it worth while to make his hands produce these
meaningless tinkling sounds, and he would jump up to read the paper
over again, or watch for fresh headlines to appear on the boards of
news-vendors in the street, and send out for any fresh edition. Or he
would walk round to his club and spend an hour reading the tape news and
waiting for fresh slips to be pinned up. But, through all the nightmare
of suspense and slowly-dying hope, Sylvia remained real, and after he
had received his daily report from the establishment where his mother
was, with the invariable message that there was no marked change of any
kind, and that it was useless for him to think of coming to see her, he
would go off to Maidstone Crescent and spend the greater part of the day
with the girl.

Once during this week he had received a note from Hermann, written at
Munich, and on the same day she also had heard from him. He had gone
back to his regiment, which was mobilised, as a private, and was very
busy with drill and duties. Feeling in Germany, he said, was elated and
triumphant: it was considered certain that England would stand aside, as
the quarrel was none of hers, and the nation generally looked forward to
a short and brilliant campaign, with the occupation of