ught the foreign secretary was the whole thing? Well, he isn't!
There's a dozen other members of the cabinet, more or less, to mix in,
and, when all's said, the premier has to approve, and after that the
Queen. And all of us are more or less afraid of the press, to say
nothing of the House of Commons, where the opposition is always trying
to put us in an awkward corner. So our motives are usually pretty mixed,
and it's very rarely that we can do just as we'd like to do."

"Then," said Susie, slowly, "I think that I must tell the Prince."

"Do so, by all means," retorted her companion, a little impatiently. "I
give you full permission, if you care to take the responsibility. But, I
assure you, it's a heavy one."

"Oh, not so awfully heavy!" said Susie, sceptically. "You have already
told me what a little place Schloshold-Markheim is."

"It _is_ little; but so is the pivot that a great piece of machinery
swings on. Collins said yesterday that the peace of Europe may hang upon
this question. I laughed at him then, but it's not at all impossible
that he may be right. Of course, with a little thing like the peace of
Europe, every schoolgirl has the right to meddle! A million of human
beings, more or less--what do they amount to? Let us slaughter them,
maim them, outrage them, burn their houses, destroy their crops! Let us
put great armies in the field, and fight great battles and think only of
the glory! Don't look at the shapeless things beneath the hoofs of the
horses, nor think of the women waiting at home--waiting for the lists of
dead and missing! Let us release the spring that will set all this in
motion--it requires only a touch, the merest touch! And think, we should
be making history! Besides, our honour requires it! We must be jealous
of our honour--it is of so much more importance than the peace of
Europe!"

And Vernon, having arrived at the hotel entrance, bade them good-bye and
was wheeled to the lift, leaving his companion rather breathless.

CHAPTER XV

"Be Bold, Be Bold"

Lord Vernon, no doubt, would have spoken with less acerbity but for the
fact that his nerves were jangling badly. The lift was started promptly,
but it required all his self-control to remain seated in his chair
during the slow progress upward of the great machine of which Monsieur
Pelletan was so proud. Scarcely had the door of his apartment closed
behind him, when he threw aside the invalid wrappings with a perfect
fury, s