The Presbyterian minister was a scholar, broad-minded, open, honest. He had moreover finished his education at Berlin University, and had, as the Colonel knew, ever since his student days maintained touch with his German friends. Mr. Geddes had come home convinced that Germany was not seeking a quarrel.
"Hamburg stands to lose by war," he told the Colonel, "And Hamburg knows it."
"What about Berlin?" the other asked.
"Berlin's militarist," the other admitted. "And Berlin's watching Ulster as a cat watches a mouse—you find that everywhere; professors, soldiers, men in the street, even my old host, Papa Schumacher, the carpenter, was agog2 about it.—Was Ulster in Shetland?—Was the Ulster Army black?—Would it attack England?—Well, our War Office must know all about the stir there. And that makes me increasingly confident that something's happened to eliminate whatever German menace there may ever have been."
"Exactly what Trupp was saying the other day," the Colonel commented. "Something's happened. You and I don't know what. You and I never do. Bonar Law and the rest of em wouldn't be working up a Civil War on this scale unless they were certain Germany was muzzled3; and what's more the Government wouldn't let em. The politicians may be fools, but they aren't lunatics."
A few evenings after this talk as the Colonel sat after supper in the loggia with his wife, overlooking the sea wandering white beneath the moon, he ruminated4 between puffs5 upon the political situation, domestic and international, with a growing sense of confidence at his heart. Indeed there was much to confirm his hopes.
The year had started with Lloyd George's famous pronouncement that the relations between Germany and England had never been brighter. Then again there was the point Trupp had made: the astonishing attitude of the unionist leaders, and the still more astonishing tolerance6 of the Government. Lastly, and far more significant from the old soldier's point of view, there was the action of Mr. Geddes's mystery-man who was no mystery-man at all. Everybody on the outermost7 edge of affairs knew the name of the General in question. Every porter at the military clubs could tell you who he was. Asquith had never made any bones about it. Redmond and Dillon had named him to Mr. Geddes. Yet if anybody could gauge8 the military situation on the Continent it was surely the man who, as Mr. Geddes had truly pointed9 out, had specialized10 in co-ordinating our Expeditionary Force with the Armies of France in the case of an attack by Germany. There he was sitting at the War Office, as he had sat for years past, in touch with the English Cabinet, lié with the French General Staff, his ear at the telephone listening to every rumour11 in every camp in Europe, and primed by a Secret Service so able that it had doped the public at home and every chancellery abroad to believe that it was the last word in official stupidity. This was the man who had thrown in his lot with the gang of speculating politicians who had embarked12 upon the campaign that had so undermined discipline in the commissioned ranks of the Army that for the first time in history a British Government could no longer trust its officers to do their duty without question.
Now no one could say this man was hot-headed; nobody could say he was a fool. Moreover he was a distinguished13 soldier and to call his patriotism14 in question was simply ridiculous, as even Geddes admitted.
The Colonel had throughout steadfastly15 refused to discuss with friend or foe16 the ethics17 of this officer's attitude, and its effect on the reputation of the Army. But of one thing he was certain. No man in that officer's position of trust and responsibility would gamble with the destinies of his country—a gamble that might involve hundreds and thousands of innocent lives. His action might be reprehensible—many people did not hesitate to describe it in plainer terms; but he would never have taken it in view of its inevitable18 reaction on military and political opinion on the Continent unless he had been certain that the German attack, which he of all men had preached for so long as inevitable, would not mature or would not mature as yet.
What then was the only possible inference?
"Something had happened."
The words his mind had been repeating uttered themselves aloud.
"What's that, my Jocko?" asked Mrs. Lewknor.
The Colonel stretched his long legs, took his pipe out of his mouth, and sighed.
"If nothing has happened by Christmas 1915 I shall resign the secretaryship of the League and return with joy to the garden and the history of the regiment19." He rose in the brilliant dusk like a spectre. "Come on, my lass!" he said. "I would a plan unfold."
She took his arm and they strolled across the lawn past the hostel20 towards the solid darkness of the Downs which enfolded them.
The long white house stood still and solitary21 in the great coombe that brimmed with darkness and was crowned with multitudinous stars. Washed by the moon, and warm with a suggestion of human busyness, the hostel seemed to be stirring in a happy sleep, as though conscious of the good work it was doing.
Mrs. Lewknor paused to look at it, a sense of comfort at her heart.
The children's beds out on the balcony could be seen; and the nurses moving in the rooms behind. Groups of parents, down from London for the week-end, strolled the lawn. A few older patients still lounged in deck-chairs on the terrace, while from within the house came the sound of laughter and someone playing rag-time. The little lady regarded the work of her hands not without a just sense of satisfaction. The hostel was booming. It was well-established now and had long justified22 itself. She was doing good work and earning honest money. This year she would not only pay for the grandson's schooling23, but she hoped at Christmas to make a start in reducing the mortgage.
"Well," she said, "what about it now, doubting Thomas?"
"Not so bad for a beginning," admitted the Colonel.
"Who's going to send Toby to Eton?" asked the lady, cruelly triumphant24. "And how?"
"Why, I am," replied the Colonel brightly—"out of my pension of five bob a week minus income tax."
Hugging each other's arms, they climbed the bank to the vegetable garden, which six years before had been turned up by the plough from the turf which may have known the tread of Caesar's legionaries. The raw oblong which had then patched the green with a lovely mauve was already peopled with trees and bushes, and rank with green stuff. The Colonel paused and sniffed25.
"Mrs. Simpkins coming on ... I long to be back among my cabbages ... I bet if I took these Orange Pippins in hand myself I'd win first prize at the East Sussex Show.... That duffer, old Lingfield—He's no good."
They turned off into the yard where Mrs. Lewknor was erecting26 a garage, now nearly finished. The Colonel paused and stared up at it.
"My dear," he said, "I've got an idea. We'll dig the Caspars out of that hole in Old Town and put them in the rooms above the garage. I'll take him on as gardener and odd-job man. He's a first-rate rough gardener. He was showing me and Bobby his allotment only the other day. And as you know, the solitary ambition of my old age has been to have an old Hammer-man about me."
"And mine for you, my Jocko," mused27 Mrs. Lewknor, far more wary28 than her impulsive29 husband. "There are only three rooms though, and she's got four children already and is still only thirty or so."
The Colonel rattled30 on, undismayed.
"He'll be half a mile from the nearest pub here," he said.
"Yes," replied Mrs. Lewknor—"and further from the clutches of that Burt man, who's twice as bad as any pub."
"Ha, ha!" jeered31 the Colonel. "So you're coming round to my way of thinking at last, are you?"
Next evening, the Colonel, eager always as a youth to consummate32 his purpose, bicycled with his wife through Paradise to Old Town.
At the corner opposite the Rectory they met Alf Caspar, who was clearly in high feather. The Colonel dismounted for a word with the convener of the League.
"Well, Caspar," he said. "So you've got your licence from the Watch Committee, I hear."
Alf purred.
"Yes, sir. All O.K.—down to the men that'll blow the horn to give em a bit o music."
"When do you start?"
"Bank Holiday, sir. I was just coming up to tell mother we were through. Last char-a-banc came this afternoon—smart as paint."
The Colonel and Mrs. Lewknor walked on towards Church Street. At Billing's Corner, waiting for the bus, was Edward Caspar. He was peering at a huge placard advertising33 expeditions by Caspar's Road-touring Syndicate, to start on August 3rd.
The Colonel, mischievous34 as a child, must cross the road to his old Trinity compeer.
"Your boy's getting on, Mr. Caspar," he observed quietly.
The old man made a clucking like a disturbed hen.
"Dreadful," he said. "Dreadful."
Mrs. Lewknor laid two fingers on his arm.
"Mr. Caspar," she said.
He glanced down at her like a startled elephant. Then he seemed to thrill as though a wind of the spirit was blowing through him. The roses of a forgotten youth bloomed for a moment in his mottled cheeks. An incredible delicacy35 and tenderness inspired the face of this flabby old man.
"Miss Solomons!" he said, and lifting her little hand kissed it.
The Colonel withdrew discreetly36; and in a moment his wife joined him, the lights dancing in her eyes.
"Pretty stiff!" grinned the Colonel—"in the public street and all."
They turned down Borough37 Lane by the Star and knocked Ruth up.
She was ironing and did not seem best pleased to see the visitors. Neither did Joe Burt, who was sitting by the fire with little Alice on his knees.
The little lady ignored the engineer.
"Where are the other children?" she asked Ruth pleasantly.
"Where they oughrer be," Joe answered—"in bed."
The Colonel came to the rescue.
"Is Caspar anywhere about?" he asked.
"He's on his allotment, I reck'n," Ruth answered coldly. "Mr. Burt joins him there most in general every evening."
"Yes," said Joe, "and was on the road now when A was interfered38 with." He kissed little Alice, put her down, and rose. "Good evening, Colonel." And he went out sullenly39.
Mrs. Lewknor, aware that negotiations40 had not opened auspiciously41, now broached42 her project. Ruth, steadily43 ironing, never lifted her eyes. She was clearly on the defensive44, suspicious in her questions, evasive and noncommittal in her replies. The Colonel became impatient.
"Mrs. Caspar might accept our offer—to oblige," he said at last.
Ruth deliberately45 laid down her iron, and challenged him: she said nothing.
Mrs. Lewknor felt the tension.
"Well, think it over, will you?" she said to Ruth. "There's no hurry."
She went out and the Colonel followed.
"That man's the biggest humbug46 unhung even for a Labour man," snapped the little lady viciously. "Preaching the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and then this!"
"I'm not sure," replied the Colonel, "not sure. I think he's much the same as most of us—an honest man who's run off the rails."
They were bicycling slowly along Victoria Drive. On the far side of the allotments right under the wall of the Downs, blue in the evening, a solitary figure was digging.
"The out-cast," said the Colonel.
Mrs. Lewknor dismounted from her bicycle and began wheeling it along the unfenced earthen path between the gardens, towards the digger. Ernie barely looked up, barely answered her salutation, wiping the sweat off his brow with the back of his hand as he continued his labour. The lady retired47 along the way she had come.
"There's something Christ-like about the feller," said the Colonel quietly as they reached the road.
"Yes," the little lady answered. "Only he's brought his troubles on his own head."
The Colonel drew up in haste.
"Hullo," he said, and began to read a newspaper placard, for which class of literature he had a consuming passion.
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1
rhetoric
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| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
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agog
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| adj.兴奋的，有强烈兴趣的； adv.渴望地 | |
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muzzled
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| 给（狗等）戴口套( muzzle的过去式和过去分词 )； 使缄默，钳制…言论 | |
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ruminated
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| v.沉思( ruminate的过去式和过去分词 )；反复考虑；反刍；倒嚼 | |
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puffs
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| n.吸( puff的名词复数 )；（烟斗或香烟的）一吸；一缕（烟、蒸汽等）；（呼吸或风的）呼v.使喷出( puff的第三人称单数 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧 | |
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tolerance
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| n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差 | |
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outermost
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| adj.最外面的，远离中心的 | |
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gauge
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| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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specialized
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| adj.专门的，专业化的 | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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embarked
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| 乘船( embark的过去式和过去分词 )； 装载； 从事 | |
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distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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hostel
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| n.（学生）宿舍，招待所 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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sniffed
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| v.以鼻吸气，嗅，闻( sniff的过去式和过去分词 )；抽鼻子（尤指哭泣、患感冒等时出声地用鼻子吸气）；抱怨，不以为然地说 | |
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26
erecting
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| v.使直立，竖起( erect的现在分词 )；建立 | |
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mused
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| v.沉思，冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 )；沉思自语说（某事） | |
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wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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impulsive
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| adj.冲动的，刺激的；有推动力的 | |
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rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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jeered
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| v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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consummate
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| adj.完美的；v.成婚；使完美 [反]baffle | |
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advertising
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| n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的 | |
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mischievous
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| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
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delicacy
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| n.精致，细微，微妙，精良；美味，佳肴 | |
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discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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borough
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| n.享有自治权的市镇；(英)自治市镇 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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sullenly
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| 不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地 | |
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negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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auspiciously
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| adv.吉利； 繁荣昌盛； 前途顺利； 吉祥 | |
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broached
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| v.谈起( broach的过去式和过去分词 )；打开并开始用；用凿子扩大（或修光）；（在桶上）钻孔取液体 | |
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43
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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44
defensive
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| adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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46
humbug
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| n.花招，谎话，欺骗 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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