thout some definite object. It seems
to me that if your Secret Service Department were worth anything at all,
your country would be in a state almost of panic. What is it they are
playing down there? Polo, isn't it? There are six or eight military
teams, crowds of your young officers making holiday. And all the time
Krupps are working overtime, working night and day, and surrounded by
sentries who shoot at sight any stranger. There are parts of the country,
even now, under martial law. The streets and the plains resound to the
footsteps of armed hosts."

"But there is no excuse for war," he reminded her.

"An excuse is very easily found," she sighed. "German diplomacy is clumsy
enough, but I think it can manage that. Do you know that this morning I
had a letter from one of the greatest nobles of our own Court at Vienna?
He knew that I had intended to take a villa in Normandy for August and
September. He has written purposely to warn me not to do so, to warn me
not to be away from Austria or Germany after the first of August."

"So soon!" he murmured.

They listened to the band for a moment. In the distance, an unceasing
stream of men and women were passing back and forth under the trees and
around the polo field.

"It will come like a thunderbolt," she said, "and when I think of it, all
that is English in me rises up in revolt. In my heart I know so well that
it is Germany and Germany alone who will provoke this war. I am terrified
for your country. I admit it, you see, frankly. The might of Germany is
only half understood here. It is to be a war of conquest, almost of
extermination."

"That isn't the view of your friend Selingman," Norgate reminded her.
"He, too, hints at coming trouble, but he speaks of it as just a salutary
little lesson."

"Selingman, more than any one else in the world, knows differently," she
assured him. "But come, we talk too seriously on such a wonderful
afternoon. I have made up my mind on one point, at least. I will stay
here for a few days longer. London at this time of the year is wonderful.
Besides, I have promised the Princess of Thurm that I will go to Ascot
with her. Why should we talk of serious things any longer? Let us have a
little rest. Let us promenade there with those other people, and listen
to the band, and have some tea afterwards."

Norgate rose with alacrity, and they strolled across the lawns and down
towards the polo field. Very soon they found themselves meeting