ions; not the
decisions into them. . . .

They were inexorable, even as the laws of the Medes and Persians. And
who was this wretched woman, to lay down the law? What did she know;
what did she understand?

"And so we decided that we must really stop it. People were beginning
to complain; and we had one or two--er--regrettable scandals."

With a start Vane woke up from his reverie and realised he had no idea
what she was talking about.

"Indeed," he murmured. "Have a salted almond?"

"Don't you think we were right, Captain Vane?" she pursued inexorably.
"The men are exposed to so many temptations that the least we can do is
to remove those we can."

"But are they exposed to any more now than they were before?" he
remarked wearily. "Why not let 'em alone, dear lady, let 'em alone?
They deserve it."

At length the ladies rose, and with a sigh of relief Vane sat down next
a lawyer whom he knew well.

"You're looking pretty rotten, Derek," he said, looking at Vane
critically.

"I've been dining next a woman with a mission," he answered. "And I
was nearly drowned in the 'Connaught.'"

The lawyer looked at him keenly. "And the two combined have finished
you off."

"Oh! no. I'm reserving my final effort for the third. I'll get that
at the Mainwarings'." He lifted his glass and let the ruby light glint
through his port. "Why do we struggle, Jimmy? Why, in Heaven's name,
does anybody ever do anything but drift? Look at that damned
foolishness over the water. . . . The most titanic struggle of the
world. And look at the result. . . . Anarchy, rebellion, strife.
What's the use; tell me that, my friend, what's the use? And the
little struggles--the personal human struggles--are just as
futile. . . ."

The lawyer thoughtfully lit a cigarette. "It's not only you fellows
out there, Derek," he said, "who are feeling that way. We're all of us
on the jump, and we're all of us bottling it up. The result is a trial
such as we had the other day, with witnesses and judge screaming at
each other, and dignity trampled in the mud. Every soul in England
read the case--generally twice--before anything else. You could see
'em all in the train--coming up to business--with the sheet on which it
was reported carefully taken out of its proper place and put in the
centre of the paper so that they could pretend they were reading the
war news."

Vane laughed. "We were better than that. We took it, naked and
una