by
Germany, as they certainly would be, and turned into naval bases, do you
still believe that England's security would be wholly provided for by
her fleet?"

Mr. Hebblethwaite smiled.

"Duchess," he said, "sooner or later I felt quite sure that our
conversation would draw near to the German bogey. The picture you draw is
menacing enough. I look upon its probability as exactly on the same par
as the overrunning of Europe by the yellow races."

"You believe in the sincerity of Germany?" she asked.

"I do," he admitted firmly. "There is a military element in Germany which
is to be regretted, but the Germans themselves are a splendid, cultured,
and peace-loving people, who are seeking their future not at the point
of the sword but in the counting-houses of the world. If I fear the
Germans, it is commercially, and from no other point of view."

"I wish I could feel your confidence," the Duchess sighed.

"I have myself recently returned from Berlin," Mr. Hebblethwaite
continued. "Busby, as you know, has been many times an honoured guest
there at their universities and in their great cities. He has had every
opportunity of probing the tendencies of the people. His mind is
absolutely and finally made up. Not in all history has there ever existed
a race freer from the lust of bloodthirsty conquest than the German
people of to-day."

Mr. Hebblethwaite concluded his sentence with some emphasis. He felt that
his words were carrying conviction. Some of the conversation at their end
of the table had been broken off to listen to his pronouncements. At that
moment his butler touched him upon the elbow.

"Mr. Bedells has just come up from the War Office, sir," he announced.
"He is waiting outside. In the meantime, he desired me to give you this."

The butler, who had served an archbishop, and resented often his own
presence in the establishment of a Radical Cabinet Minister, presented a
small silver salver on which reposed a hastily twisted up piece of paper.
Mr. Hebblethwaite, with a little nod, unrolled it and glanced towards the
Duchess, who bowed complacently. With the smile still upon his lips, a
confident light in his eyes, Mr. Hebblethwaite held out the crumpled
piece of paper before him and read the hurriedly scrawled pencil lines:

"_Germany has declared war against Russia and presented an ultimatum to
France. I have other messages_."

Mr. Hebblethwaite was a strong man. He was a man of immense self-control.
Yet i