mon elementary right." He was invoking it himself. What he
was trying to do all this while was to achieve an outlet for his own
personality. This was really behind even his intrigue with the London
School of Mnemonics. He was convinced he had something in him which the
pressures and conventions of the world had never permitted to emerge. It
must be borne in mind that the grand ideal of sacrifice which swept over
us like a giant wave of emotion at the beginning of the war behaved like
all waves. It receded eventually, and those of us whose natures were
durable rather than soluble emerged and began to take in the situation
while we dried ourselves as quickly as possible. We wondered if there
might not be some valuable wreckage washing ashore soon. We got into the
universal life-saving uniform, of course, and assumed conventional
attitudes of looking out to sea and acting as chorus to the grand
principal performers; but the habits and instincts of generations were
too strong for us. We kept one eye on the beaches for wreckage.
Patriotism became an intricate game of bluffing ourselves. We had
returned with naive simplicity to the habits of our Danish and Saxon and
Norman ancestors. Like the Jews in London who joined lustily in the
chorus of "Onward, Christian Soldiers," we missed the joke in our
furious eagerness to seize the opportunity. But there were many, and Mr.
Spokesly was one, whose acquisitive genius was not adequately developed
to deal with all the chances of loot that came by, and who were
preoccupied with the fascinating problem of establishing their egos on a
higher plane. Merely becoming engaged had been an advance, for Mr.
Spokesly, because men like him can move neither upward nor downward
without the aid of women. Once removed from the influence of Ada by a
series of events which he could not control, he was the predestined prey
of the next woman ahead. Those who view this career with contempt should
reflect upon the happiness and longevity of many who pursue it. Mr.
Spokesly was no sensualist in the strict meaning of the word. He simply
experienced a difficulty in having any spiritual life apart from women.
He could do with a minimum of inspiration, but such as he needed had to
come from them. All his thoughts clustered about them. Just as he
experienced a feeling of exaltation when he found himself in their
company, so he could never see another man similarly engaged without
regarding him as a being of singu