t I love you."

He took her hand, and she did not withdraw it.

"If it is foolish," she murmured, "then I am foolish, too. Perhaps you
can guess now why I came to London."

He drew her into his arms. She made no resistance. Her lips, even, were
seeking his. It seemed to him in those breathless moments that a greater
thing than even the destiny of nations was born into the world. There
was a new vigour in his pulses as she gently pushed him back, a new
splendour in life.

"Dear," she exclaimed, "of course we are both very foolish, and yet, I do
not know. I have been wondering why this has not come to me long ago, and
now that it has come I am happy."

"You care--you really care?" he insisted passionately.

"Of course I do," she told him, quietly enough and yet very
convincingly. "If I did not care I should not be here. If I did not
care, I should not be going to say the things to you which I am going to
say now. Sit back in your chair, please, hold my hand still, smoke if
you will, but listen."

He obeyed. A deeper seriousness crept into her tone, but her face was
still soft and wonderful. The new things were lingering there.

"I want to tell you first," she said, "what I think you already know. The
moment for which Germany has toiled so long, from which she has never
faltered, is very close at hand. With all her marvellous resources and
that amazing war equipment of which you in this country know little, she
will soon throw down the gage to England. You are an Englishman, Francis.
You are not going to forget it, are you?"

"Forget it?" he repeated.

"I know," she continued slowly, "that Selingman has made advances to you.
I know that he has a devilish gift for enrolling on his list men of
honour and conscience. He has the knack of subtle argument, of twisting
facts and preying upon human weaknesses. You have been shockingly treated
by your Foreign Office. You yourself are entirely out of sympathy with
your Government. You know very well that England, as she is, is a country
which has lost her ideals, a country in which many of her sons might
indeed, without much reproach, lose their pride, Selingman knows this. He
knows how to work upon these facts. He might very easily convince you
that the truest service you could render your country was to assist her
in passing through a temporary tribulation."

He looked at her almost in surprise.

"You seem to know the man's methods," he observed.

"I do," she answe