" he said.

"Didn't you?" returned the other. "Well, I'm not an authority on the
subject; and I haven't seen the inside of a church for business
purposes since before the South African War. But to my mind, when
you've shorn it of its trappings and removed ninety per cent. of its
official performers into oblivion, you'll find your answer in what,
after all, the Church stands for." He hesitated for a moment, and
glanced at Vane, for he was by nature a man not given to speech. "Take
a good battalion in France," he continued slowly. "You know as well as
I do what's at the bottom of it--good officers. Good leaders. . . .
What makes a good leader? What's the difference between a good officer
and a dud? Why, one has sympathy and the other hasn't: one will
sacrifice himself, the other won't. . . . There's your gospel. . . ."
He relapsed into silence, and Vane looked at him thoughtfully.

"Sympathy and sacrifice," he repeated slowly. "Is that your summing up
of Christianity?

"Isn't it?" returned the other. "But whether it is or whether it
isn't, it's the only thing that will keep any show going. Damn it,
man, it's not religion--it's common horse sense." The Major thumped
his knee. "What the deuce do you do if you find things are going wrong
in your company? You don't snow yourself in with reports in triplicate
and bark. You go and see for yourself. Then you go and talk for
yourself; and you find that it is either a justifiable grievance which
you can put right, or an error or a misunderstanding which you can
explain. You get into touch with them. . . . Sympathy. Sacrifice.
Have a drink?" He pressed the bell and sank back exhausted. As has
been said, he was not addicted to speech.

Neither of them spoke until the waiter had carried out the order, and
then suddenly the Major started again. Like many reserved men, once
the barrier was broken down, he could let himself go with the best.
And Vane, with his eyes fixed on the quiet face and steady eyes of the
elder man, listened in silence.

"I'm a fool," he jerked out. "Every Regular officer is a fool.
Numbers of novelists have said so. Of course one bows to their
superior knowledge. But what strikes me in my foolishness is
this. . . . You've got to have leaders and you've got to have led,
because the Almighty has decreed that none of us have the same amount
of ability. Perhaps they think He's a fool too; but even they can't
alter that. . . . If abi