case,
have been mistaken. Lord Dunseverick, in spite of his well-fitting
clothes, his delicately coloured tie, and his general air of sleek
well-being, was at that moment--it was the month of May, 1914--something
of a hero with the Belfast working man. And the Belfast working man,
as everybody knows, is more bitterly contemptuous of the idle rich,
especially of the idle rich with titles, than any other working man.

The Belfast working man had just then worked himself up to a degree of
martial ardour, unprecedented even in Ulster, in his opposition to Home
Rule. Lord Dunseverick was one of the generals of the Ulster Volunteer
Force. He had made several speeches which moved Belfast to wild
delight and sober-minded men elsewhere to dubious shaking of the head.
Enthusiasm in a cause is a fine thing, especially in the young, but when
Lord Dunseverick's enthusiasm led him to say that he would welcome the
German Emperor at the head of his legions as the deliverer of Ulster
from the tyranny of a Parliament in Dublin, why then--then the rank and
file of the volunteer army cheered, and other people wondered whether
it were quite wise to say such things. Yet Lord Dunseverick, when not
actually engaged in making a speech, was a pleasant and agreeable young
man with a keen sense of humour. He even--and this is a rare quality in
men--saw the humorous side of his own speeches. The trouble was that he
never saw it till after he had made them.

A heavy motor-lorry came thundering along the quay. Lord Dunseverick
dodged it, and escaped with his life. He was splashed from head to foot
with mud. He looked at his neat boots and well-fashioned grey trousers.
The blade slime lay thick on them. He wiped a spot of mud off his cheek
and rubbed some wet coal dust into his collar. Then he lit a cigarette,
and smiled.

He stepped into the porch of a reeking public-house and found himself
beside a grizzled man, who looked like a sailor. Lord Dunseverick turned
to him.

"Can you tell me," he said, "where Mr. McMunn's office is?"

"Is it coal you're wanting?" asked the sailor.

It is thus that questions are often met in Belfast with
counter-questions. Belfast is a city of business men, and it is not the
habit of business men to give away anything, even information, without
getting something in return. The counter-question may draw some valuable
matter by way of answer from the original questioner. In this case
the counter-question was a reason