terrible chastisement.

"It is terrible to think," she said to Heideck, "that a nation that
calls itself Christian should dare attack us in India. What was this
unhappy land before we took pity on it? England has freed it from the
hands of barbarous despots and brought it happiness! The Indian cities
have grown in prosperity because our laws have paved the way for free
development of commerce and intercourse. It is in the highest sense of
the word a mission of civilisation that our nation has here fulfilled.
If Heaven gives Russia the victory, this now so happy land will be
hurled back into the blackness of barbarism." She appeared to wait for a
word of assent from Mrs. Irwin, but the latter sat in serious silence.

"You ought not to be so silent, dearest Edith, and ought not to pull
such a melancholy face," said the Colonel's wife, turning to her with
a gentle reproach. "I perfectly understand that the sad events of your
private life are distressing you. But all personal sorrow should now be
merged into the general grief. What is the fate of the individual, when
his country is exposed to such danger? I know that you are as good a
patriot as any Englishwoman, but it appears to me that it is necessary
to prove it in these hours of danger. Anxiety and moroseness have at
such times upon one's surroundings the effect of a contagious disease."

"But possibly I am not the good patriot you take me for."

"Ah! What do you mean by that?"

"I cannot look at wars from your point of view, dear Mrs. Baird. It
almost seems to me that there is not a very great difference between men
and brute beasts, who fight each other out of hunger, or jealousy, and
all kinds of low instincts."

"Oh, what a comparison to draw!"

"Well, it is true we know better how to wage war. We invent complicated
instruments wherewith to destroy our fellow-beings in enormous numbers,
whilst animals are limited to their own natural weapons. But do we,
therefore, know better what we are doing than the animals? Don't you
think that, when hosts of ants, or bees, or weasels, or fishes in the
sea sally forth to destroy other creatures of their species, they may be
guided perhaps by the same instincts that govern us also?"

"I cannot follow you there, Mrs. Irwin," the little lady replied, with a
shade of irritation in her voice. "Human beings are endowed with reason,
and are conscious of their aims and actions."

"Is it really so reasonable when peasants and