ildren, and the tedium of
those endless days was intolerable.

Occasionally he was exasperated that he could not avoid the discussions
which his father, with a weak man's obstinacy, forced upon him. Some
unhappy, baneful power seemed to drive Colonel Parsons to widen the
rift, the existence of which caused him such exquisite pain; his natural
kindliness was obscured by an uncontrollable irritation. One day he was
reading the paper.

"I see we've had another unfortunate reverse," he said, looking up.

"Oh!"

"I suppose you're delighted, Jamie?"

"I'm very sorry. Why should I be otherwise?"

"You always stick up for the enemies of your country." Turning to his
brother-in-law, he explained: "James says that if he'd been a Cape
Dutchman he'd have fought against us."

"Well, he deserves to be court-martialled for saying so! "cried Major
Forsyth.

"I don't think he means to be taken seriously," said his mother.

"Oh, yes, I do." It constantly annoyed James that when he said anything
that was not quite an obvious truism, they should think he was speaking
merely for effect. "Why, my dear mother, if you'd been a Boer woman
you'd have potted at us from behind a haystack with the best of them."

"The Boers are robbers and brigands."

"That's just what they say we are."

"But we're right."

"And they're equally convinced that they are."

"God can't be on both sides, James."

"The odd thing is the certainty with which both sides claim His
exclusive protection."

"I should think it wicked to doubt that God is with us in a righteous
war," said Mrs. Parsons.

"If the Boers weren't deceived by that old villain Kruger, they'd never
have fought us."

"The Boers are strange people," replied James. "They actually prefer
their independence to all the privileges and advantages of
subjection.... The wonderful thing to me is that people should really
think Mr. Kruger a hypocrite. A ruler who didn't honestly believe in
himself and in his mission would never have had such influence. If a man
wants power he must have self-faith; but then he may be narrow,
intolerant, and vicious. His fellows will be like wax in his hands."

"If Kruger had been honest, he wouldn't have put up with bribery and
corruption."

"The last thing I expect is consistency in an animal of such contrary
instincts as man."

"Every true Englishman, I'm thankful to say, thinks him a scoundrel and
a blackguard."

"In a hundred years he will probably