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diff --git a/old/14060.txt b/old/14060.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e1fa067 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/14060.txt @@ -0,0 +1,15864 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Mr. Britling Sees It Through, by H. G. Wells + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Mr. Britling Sees It Through + +Author: H. G. Wells + +Release Date: November 16, 2004 [EBook #14060] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MR. BRITLING SEES IT THROUGH *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Sandra Bannatyne and the PG Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + + +MR. BRITLING SEES IT THROUGH + +BY H.G. WELLS + + +COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY H.G. WELLS + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + +BOOK I + +MATCHING'S EASY AT EASE + + I MR. DIRECK VISITS MR. BRITLING + II MR. BRITLING CONTINUES HIS EXPOSITION +III THE ENTERTAINMENT OF MR. DIRECK REACHES A CLIMAX + IV MR. BRITLING IN SOLILOQUY + V THE COMING OF THE DAY + + +BOOK II + +MATCHING'S EASY AT WAR + + I ONLOOKERS + II TAKING PART +III MALIGNITY + IV IN THE WEB OF THE INEFFECTIVE + + +BOOK III + +THE TESTAMENT OF MATCHING'S EASY + + I MRS. TEDDY GOES FOR A WALK + II MR. BRITLING WRITES UNTIL SUNRISE + + + + + + +BOOK I + +MATCHING'S EASY AT EASE + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +MR. DIRECK VISITS MR. BRITLING + + +Section 1 + +It was the sixth day of Mr. Direck's first visit to England, and he was +at his acutest perception of differences. He found England in every way +gratifying and satisfactory, and more of a contrast with things American +than he had ever dared to hope. + +He had promised himself this visit for many years, but being of a sunny +rather than energetic temperament--though he firmly believed himself +to be a reservoir of clear-sighted American energy--he had allowed all +sorts of things, and more particularly the uncertainties of Miss Mamie +Nelson, to keep him back. But now there were no more uncertainties about +Miss Mamie Nelson, and Mr. Direck had come over to England just to +convince himself and everybody else that there were other interests +in life for him than Mamie.... + +And also, he wanted to see the old country from which his maternal +grandmother had sprung. Wasn't there even now in his bedroom in New York +a water-colour of Market Saffron church, where the dear old lady had +been confirmed? And generally he wanted to see Europe. As an interesting +side show to the excursion he hoped, in his capacity of the rather +underworked and rather over-salaried secretary of the Massachusetts +Society for the Study of Contemporary Thought, to discuss certain +agreeable possibilities with Mr. Britling, who lived at Matching's Easy. + +Mr. Direck was a type of man not uncommon in America. He was very much +after the fashion of that clean and pleasant-looking person one sees in +the advertisements in American magazines, that agreeable person who +smiles and says, "Good, it's the Fizgig Brand," or "Yes, it's a Wilkins, +and that's the Best," or "My shirt-front never rucks; it's a Chesson." +But now he was saying, still with the same firm smile, "Good. It's +English." He was pleased by every unlikeness to things American, by +every item he could hail as characteristic; in the train to London he +had laughed aloud with pleasure at the chequer-board of little fields +upon the hills of Cheshire, he had chuckled to find himself in a +compartment without a corridor; he had tipped the polite yet kindly +guard magnificently, after doubting for a moment whether he ought to tip +him at all, and he had gone about his hotel in London saying "Lordy! +Lordy! My _word!_" in a kind of ecstasy, verifying the delightful +absence of telephone, of steam-heat, of any dependent bathroom. At +breakfast the waiter (out of Dickens it seemed) had refused to know what +"cereals" were, and had given him his egg in a china egg-cup such as you +see in the pictures in _Punch_. The Thames, when he sallied out to see +it, had been too good to be true, the smallest thing in rivers he had +ever seen, and he had had to restrain himself from affecting a marked +accent and accosting some passer-by with the question, "Say! But is this +little wet ditch here the Historical River Thames?" + +In America, it must be explained, Mr. Direck spoke a very good and +careful English indeed, but he now found the utmost difficulty in +controlling his impulse to use a high-pitched nasal drone and indulge in +dry "Americanisms" and poker metaphors upon all occasions. When people +asked him questions he wanted to say "Yep" or "Sure," words he would no +more have used in America than he could have used a bowie knife. But he +had a sense of role. He wanted to be visibly and audibly America +eye-witnessing. He wanted to be just exactly what he supposed an +Englishman would expect him to be. At any rate, his clothes had been +made by a strongly American New York tailor, and upon the strength of +them a taxi-man had assumed politely but firmly that the shillings on +his taximeter were dollars, an incident that helped greatly to sustain +the effect of Mr. Direck, in Mr. Direck's mind, as something standing +out with an almost representative clearness against the English +scene.... So much so that the taxi-man got the dollars.... + +Because all the time he had been coming over he had dreaded that it +wasn't true, that England was a legend, that London would turn out to be +just another thundering great New York, and the English exactly like New +Englanders.... + + +Section 2 + +And now here he was on the branch line of the little old Great Eastern +Railway, on his way to Matching's Easy in Essex, and he was suddenly in +the heart of Washington Irving's England. + +Washington Irving's England! Indeed it was. He couldn't sit still and +just peep at it, he had to stand up in the little compartment and stick +his large, firm-featured, kindly countenance out of the window as if he +greeted it. The country under the June sunshine was neat and bright as +an old-world garden, with little fields of corn surrounded by dog-rose +hedges, and woods and small rushy pastures of an infinite tidiness. He +had seen a real deer park, it had rather tumbledown iron gates between +its shield-surmounted pillars, and in the distance, beyond all question, +was Bracebridge Hall nestling among great trees. He had seen thatched +and timbered cottages, and half-a-dozen inns with creaking signs. He had +seen a fat vicar driving himself along a grassy lane in a governess cart +drawn by a fat grey pony. It wasn't like any reality he had ever known. +It was like travelling in literature. + +Mr. Britling's address was the Dower House, and it was, Mr. Britling's +note had explained, on the farther edge of the park at Claverings. +Claverings! The very name for some stately home of England.... + +And yet this was only forty-two miles from London. Surely it brought +things within the suburban range. If Matching's Easy were in America, +commuters would live there. But in supposing that, Mr. Direck displayed +his ignorance of a fact of the greatest importance to all who would +understand England. There is a gap in the suburbs of London. The suburbs +of London stretch west and south and even west by north, but to the +north-eastward there are no suburbs; instead there is Essex. Essex is +not a suburban county; it is a characteristic and individualised county +which wins the heart. Between dear Essex and the centre of things lie +two great barriers, the East End of London and Epping Forest. Before a +train could get to any villadom with a cargo of season-ticket holders it +would have to circle about this rescued woodland and travel for twenty +unprofitable miles, and so once you are away from the main Great Eastern +lines Essex still lives in the peace of the eighteenth century, and +London, the modern Babylon, is, like the stars, just a light in the +nocturnal sky. In Matching's Easy, as Mr. Britling presently explained +to Mr. Direck, there are half-a-dozen old people who have never set eyes +on London in their lives--and do not want to. + +"Aye-ya!" + +"Fussin' about thea." + +"Mr. Robinson, 'e went to Lon', 'e did. That's 'ow 'e 'urt 'is fut." + +Mr. Direck had learnt at the main-line junction that he had to tell the +guard to stop the train for Matching's Easy; it only stopped "by +request"; the thing was getting better and better; and when Mr. Direck +seized his grip and got out of the train there was just one little old +Essex station-master and porter and signalman and everything, holding a +red flag in his hand and talking to Mr. Britling about the cultivation +of the sweet peas which glorified the station. And there was the Mr. +Britling who was the only item of business and the greatest expectation +in Mr. Direck's European journey, and he was quite unlike the portraits +Mr. Direck had seen and quite unmistakably Mr. Britling all the same, +since there was nobody else upon the platform, and he was advancing with +a gesture of welcome. + +"Did you ever see such peas, Mr. Dick?" said Mr. Britling by way of +introduction. + +"My _word_," said Mr. Direck in a good old Farmer Hayseed kind of voice. + +"Aye-ya!" said the station-master in singularly strident tones. "It be a +rare year for sweet peas," and then he slammed the door of the carriage +in a leisurely manner and did dismissive things with his flag, while the +two gentlemen took stock, as people say, of one another. + + +Section 3 + +Except in the doubtful instance of Miss Mamie Nelson, Mr. Direck's habit +was good fortune. Pleasant things came to him. Such was his position as +the salaried secretary of this society of thoughtful Massachusetts +business men to which allusion has been made. Its purpose was to bring +itself expeditiously into touch with the best thought of the age. + +Too busily occupied with practical realities to follow the thought of +the age through all its divagations and into all its recesses, these +Massachusetts business men had had to consider methods of access more +quintessential and nuclear. And they had decided not to hunt out the +best thought in its merely germinating stages, but to wait until it had +emerged and flowered to some trustworthy recognition, and then, rather +than toil through recondite and possibly already reconsidered books and +writings generally, to offer an impressive fee to the emerged new +thinker, and to invite him to come to them and to lecture to them and to +have a conference with them, and to tell them simply, competently and +completely at first hand just all that he was about. To come, in fact, +and be himself--in a highly concentrated form. In this way a number of +interesting Europeans had been given very pleasant excursions to +America, and the society had been able to form very definite opinions +upon their teaching. And Mr. Britling was one of the representative +thinkers upon which this society had decided to inform itself. It was to +broach this invitation and to offer him the impressive honorarium by +which the society honoured not only its guests but itself, that Mr. +Direck had now come to Matching's Easy. He had already sent Mr. Britling +a letter of introduction, not indeed intimating his precise purpose, but +mentioning merely a desire to know him, and the letter had been so +happily phrased and its writer had left such a memory of pleasant +hospitality on Mr. Britling's mind during Mr. Britling's former visit to +New York, that it had immediately produced for Mr. Direck an invitation +not merely to come and see him but to come and stay over the week-end. + +And here they were shaking hands. + +Mr. Britling did not look at all as Mr. Direck had expected him to look. +He had expected an Englishman in a country costume of golfing tweeds, +like the Englishman in country costume one sees in American illustrated +stories. Drooping out of the country costume of golfing tweeds he had +expected to see the mildly unhappy face, pensive even to its drooping +moustache, with which Mr. Britling's publisher had for some faulty and +unfortunate reason familiarised the American public. Instead of this, +Mr. Britling was in a miscellaneous costume, and mildness was the last +quality one could attribute to him. His moustache, his hair, his +eyebrows bristled; his flaming freckled face seemed about to bristle +too. His little hazel eyes came out with a "ping" and looked at Mr. +Direck. Mr. Britling was one of a large but still remarkable class of +people who seem at the mere approach of photography to change their +hair, their clothes, their moral natures. No photographer had ever +caught a hint of his essential Britlingness and bristlingness. Only the +camera could ever induce Mr. Britling to brush his hair, and for the +camera alone did he reserve that expression of submissive martyrdom Mr. +Direck knew. And Mr. Direck was altogether unprepared for a certain +casualness of costume that sometimes overtook Mr. Britling. He was +wearing now a very old blue flannel blazer, no hat, and a pair of +knickerbockers, not tweed breeches but tweed knickerbockers of a +remarkable bagginess, and made of one of those virtuous socialistic +homespun tweeds that drag out into woolly knots and strings wherever +there is attrition. His stockings were worsted and wrinkled, and on his +feet were those extraordinary slippers of bright-coloured bast-like +interwoven material one buys in the north of France. These were purple +with a touch of green. He had, in fact, thought of the necessity of +meeting Mr. Direck at the station at the very last moment, and had come +away from his study in the clothes that had happened to him when he got +up. His face wore the amiable expression of a wire-haired terrier +disposed to be friendly, and it struck Mr. Direck that for a man of his +real intellectual distinction Mr. Britling was unusually short. + +For there can be no denying that Mr. Britling was, in a sense, +distinguished. The hero and subject of this novel was at its very +beginning a distinguished man. He was in the _Who's Who_ of two +continents. In the last few years he had grown with some rapidity into a +writer recognised and welcomed by the more cultivated sections of the +American public, and even known to a select circle of British readers. +To his American discoverers he had first appeared as an essayist, a +serious essayist who wrote about aesthetics and Oriental thought and +national character and poets and painting. He had come through America +some years ago as one of those Kahn scholars, those promising writers +and intelligent men endowed by Auguste Kahn of Paris, who go about the +world nowadays in comfort and consideration as the travelling guests of +that original philanthropist--to acquire the international spirit. +Previously he had been a critic of art and literature and a writer of +thoughtful third leaders in the London _Times_. He had begun with a +Pembroke fellowship and a prize poem. He had returned from his world +tour to his reflective yet original corner of _The Times_ and to the +production of books about national relationships and social psychology, +that had brought him rapidly into prominence. + +His was a naturally irritable mind, which gave him point and passion; +and moreover he had a certain obstinate originality and a generous +disposition. So that he was always lively, sometimes spacious, and never +vile. He loved to write and talk. He talked about everything, he had +ideas about everything; he could no more help having ideas about +everything than a dog can resist smelling at your heels. He sniffed at +the heels of reality. Lots of people found him interesting and +stimulating, a few found him seriously exasperating. He had ideas in the +utmost profusion about races and empires and social order and political +institutions and gardens and automobiles and the future of India and +China and aesthetics and America and the education of mankind in +general.... And all that sort of thing.... + +Mr. Direck had read a very great deal of all this expressed +opiniativeness of Mr. Britling: he found it entertaining and stimulating +stuff, and it was with genuine enthusiasm that he had come over to +encounter the man himself. On his way across the Atlantic and during +the intervening days, he had rehearsed this meeting in varying keys, but +always on the supposition that Mr. Britling was a large, quiet, +thoughtful sort of man, a man who would, as it were, sit in attentive +rows like a public meeting and listen. So Mr. Direck had prepared quite +a number of pleasant and attractive openings, and now he felt was the +moment for some one of these various simple, memorable utterances. But +in none of these forecasts had he reckoned with either the spontaneous +activities of Mr. Britling or with the station-master of Matching's +Easy. Oblivious of any conversational necessities between Mr. Direck and +Mr. Britling, this official now took charge of Mr. Direck's grip-sack, +and, falling into line with the two gentlemen as they walked towards the +exit gate, resumed what was evidently an interrupted discourse upon +sweet peas, originally addressed to Mr. Britling. + +He was a small, elderly man with a determined-looking face and a sea +voice, and it was clear he overestimated the distance of his hearers. + +"Mr. Darling what's head gardener up at Claverings, _'e_ can't get sweet +peas like that, try _'ow_ 'e will. Tried everything 'e 'as. Sand +ballast, 'e's tried. Seeds same as me. 'E came along 'ere only the other +day, 'e did, and 'e says to me, 'e says, 'darned 'f I can see why a +station-master should beat a professional gardener at 'is own game,' 'e +says, 'but you do. And in your orf time, too, so's to speak,' 'e says. +'I've tried sile,' 'e says--" + +"Your first visit to England?" asked Mr. Britling of his guest. + +"Absolutely," said Mr. Direck. + +"I says to 'im, 'there's one thing you 'aven't tried,' I says," the +station-master continued, raising his voice by a Herculean feat still +higher. + +"I've got a little car outside here," said Mr. Britling. "I'm a couple +of miles from the station." + +"I says to 'im, I says, ''ave you tried the vibritation of the trains?' +I says. 'That's what you 'aven't tried, Mr. Darling. That's what you +_can't_ try,' I says. 'But you rest assured that that's the secret of my +sweet peas,' I says, 'nothing less and nothing more than the vibritation +of the trains.'" + +Mr. Direck's mind was a little confused by the double nature of the +conversation and by the fact that Mr. Britling spoke of a car when +he meant an automobile. He handed his ticket mechanically to the +station-master, who continued to repeat and endorse his anecdote at the +top of his voice as Mr. Britling disposed himself and his guest in the +automobile. + +"You know you 'aven't 'urt that mud-guard, sir, not the slightest bit +that matters," shouted the station-master. "I've been a looking at +it--er. It's my fence that's suffered most. And that's only strained +the post a lil' bit. Shall I put your bag in behind, sir?" + +Mr. Direck assented, and then, after a momentary hesitation, rewarded +the station-master's services. + +"Ready?" asked Mr. Britling. + +"That's all right sir," the station-master reverberated. + +With a rather wide curve Mr. Britling steered his way out of the station +into the highroad. + + +Section 4 + +And now it seemed was the time for Mr. Direck to make his meditated +speeches. But an unexpected complication was to defeat this intention. +Mr. Direck perceived almost at once that Mr. Britling was probably +driving an automobile for the first or second or at the extremest the +third time in his life. + +The thing became evident when he struggled to get into the high gear--an +attempt that stopped the engine, and it was even more startlingly so +when Mr. Britling narrowly missed a collision with a baker's cart at a +corner. "I pressed the accelerator," he explained afterwards, "instead +of the brake. One does at first. I missed him by less than a foot." +The estimate was a generous one. And after that Mr. Direck became +too anxious not to distract his host's thoughts to persist with his +conversational openings. An attentive silence came upon both gentlemen +that was broken presently by a sudden outcry from Mr. Britling and a +great noise of tormented gears. "Damn!" cried Mr. Britling, and "How +the _devil_?" + +Mr. Direck perceived that his host was trying to turn the car into a +very beautiful gateway, with gate-houses on either side. Then it was +manifest that Mr. Britling had abandoned this idea, and then they came +to a stop a dozen yards or so along the main road. "Missed it," said Mr. +Britling, and took his hands off the steering wheel and blew stormily, +and then whistled some bars of a fretful air, and became still. + +"Do we go through these ancient gates?" asked Mr. Direck. + +Mr. Britling looked over his right shoulder and considered problems of +curvature and distance. "I think," he said, "I will go round outside the +park. It will take us a little longer, but it will be simpler than +backing and manoeuvring here now.... These electric starters are +remarkably convenient things. Otherwise now I should have to get down +and wind up the engine." + +After that came a corner, the rounding of which seemed to present few +difficulties until suddenly Mr. Britling cried out, "Eh! _eh_! EH! Oh, +_damn_!" + +Then the two gentlemen were sitting side by side in a rather sloping car +that had ascended the bank and buried its nose in a hedge of dog-rose +and honeysuckle, from which two missel thrushes, a blackbird and a +number of sparrows had made a hurried escape.... + + +Section 5 + +"Perhaps," said Mr. Britling without assurance, and after a little +peaceful pause, "I can reverse out of this." + +He seemed to feel some explanation was due to Mr. Direck. "You see, +at first--it's perfectly simple--one steers _round_ a corner and then +one doesn't put the wheels straight again, and so one keeps on going +round--more than one meant to. It's the bicycle habit; the bicycle +rights itself. One expects a car to do the same thing. It was my fault. +The book explains all this question clearly, but just at the moment +I forgot." + +He reflected and experimented in a way that made the engine scold +and fuss.... + +"You see, she won't budge for the reverse.... She's--embedded.... Do you +mind getting out and turning the wheel back? Then if I reverse, perhaps +we'll get a move on...." + +Mr. Direck descended, and there were considerable efforts. + +"If you'd just grip the spokes. Yes, so.... One, Two, Three!... No! +Well, let's just sit here until somebody comes along to help us. Oh! +Somebody will come all right. Won't you get up again?" + +And after a reflective moment Mr. Direck resumed his seat beside +Mr. Britling.... + + +Section 6 + +The two gentlemen smiled at each other to dispel any suspicion of +discontent. + +"My driving leaves something to be desired," said Mr. Britling with +an air of frank impartiality. "But I have only just got this car for +myself--after some years of hired cars--the sort of lazy arrangement +where people supply car, driver, petrol, tyres, insurance and everything +at so much a month. It bored me abominably. I can't imagine now how +I stood it for so long. They sent me down a succession of compact, +scornful boys who used to go fast when I wanted to go slow, and slow +when I wanted to go fast, and who used to take every corner on the +wrong side at top speed, and charge dogs and hens for the sport of it, +and all sorts of things like that. They would not even let me choose my +roads. I should have got myself a car long ago, and driven it, if it +wasn't for that infernal business with a handle one had to do when the +engine stopped. But here, you see, is a reasonably cheap car with an +electric starter--American, I need scarcely say. And here I am--going +at my own pace." + +Mr. Direck glanced for a moment at the pretty disorder of the hedge in +which they were embedded, and smiled and admitted that it was certainly +much more agreeable. + +Before he had finished saying as much Mr. Britling was talking again. + +He had a quick and rather jerky way of speaking; he seemed to fire out a +thought directly it came into his mind, and he seemed to have a loaded +magazine of thoughts in his head. He spoke almost exactly twice as fast +as Mr. Direck, clipping his words much more, using much compacter +sentences, and generally cutting his corners, and this put Mr. Direck +off his game. + +That rapid attack while the transatlantic interlocutor is deploying is +indeed a not infrequent defect of conversations between Englishmen and +Americans. It is a source of many misunderstandings. The two conceptions +of conversation differ fundamentally. The English are much less disposed +to listen than the American; they have not quite the same sense of +conversational give and take, and at first they are apt to reduce their +visitors to the role of auditors wondering when their turn will begin. +Their turn never does begin. Mr. Direck sat deeply in his slanting seat +with a half face to his celebrated host and said "Yep" and "Sure" and +"That _is_ so," in the dry grave tones that he believed an Englishman +would naturally expect him to use, realising this only very gradually. + +Mr. Britling, from his praise of the enterprise that had at last brought +a car he could drive within his reach, went on to that favourite topic +of all intelligent Englishmen, the adverse criticism of things British. +He pointed out that the central position of the brake and gear levers in +his automobile made it extremely easy for the American manufacturer to +turn it out either as a left-handed or a right-handed car, and so adapt +it either to the Continental or to the British rule of the road. No +English cars were so adaptable. We British suffered much from our +insular rule of the road, just as we suffered much from our insular +weights and measures. But we took a perverse pride in such +disadvantages. The irruption of American cars into England was a recent +phenomenon, it was another triumph for the tremendous organising ability +of the American mind. They were doing with the automobile what they had +done with clocks and watches and rifles, they had standardised and +machined wholesale, while the British were still making the things one +by one. It was an extraordinary thing that England, which was the +originator of the industrial system and the original developer of the +division of labour, should have so fallen away from systematic +manufacturing. He believed this was largely due to the influence of +Oxford and the Established Church.... + +At this point Mr. Direck was moved by an anecdote. "It will help to +illustrate what you are saying, Mr. Britling, about systematic +organisation if I tell you a little incident that happened to a friend +of mine in Toledo, where they are setting up a big plant with a view to +capturing the entire American and European market in the class of the +thousand-dollar car--" + +"There's no end of such little incidents," said Mr. Britling, cutting in +without apparent effort. "You see, we get it on both sides. Our +manufacturer class was, of course, originally an insurgent class. It was +a class of distended craftsmen. It had the craftsman's natural +enterprise and natural radicalism. As soon as it prospered and sent its +boys to Oxford it was lost. Our manufacturing class was assimilated in +no time to the conservative classes, whose education has always had a +mandarin quality--very, very little of it, and very cold and choice. In +America you have so far had no real conservative class at all. Fortunate +continent! You cast out your Tories, and you were left with nothing but +Whigs and Radicals. But our peculiar bad luck has been to get a sort of +revolutionary who is a Tory mandarin too. Ruskin and Morris, for +example, were as reactionary and anti-scientific as the dukes and the +bishops. Machine haters. Science haters. Rule of Thumbites to the bone. +So are our current Socialists. They've filled this country with the idea +that the ideal automobile ought to be made entirely by the hand labour +of traditional craftsmen, quite individually, out of beaten copper, +wrought iron and seasoned oak. All this electric-starter business and +this electric lighting outfit I have here, is perfectly hateful to the +English mind.... It isn't that we are simply backward in these things, +we are antagonistic. The British mind has never really tolerated +electricity; at least, not that sort of electricity that runs through +wires. Too slippery and glib for it. Associates it with Italians and +fluency generally, with Volta, Galvani, Marconi and so on. The proper +British electricity is that high-grade useless long-sparking stuff you +get by turning round a glass machine; stuff we used to call frictional +electricity. Keep it in Leyden jars.... At Claverings here they still +refuse to have electric bells. There was a row when the Solomonsons, who +were tenants here for a time, tried to put them in...." + +Mr. Direck had followed this cascade of remarks with a patient smile and +a slowly nodding head. "What you say," he said, "forms a very marked +contrast indeed with the sort of thing that goes on in America. This +friend of mine I was speaking of, the one who is connected with an +automobile factory in Toledo--" + +"Of course," Mr. Britling burst out again, "even conservatism isn't an +ultimate thing. After all, we and your enterprising friend at Toledo, +are very much the same blood. The conservatism, I mean, isn't racial. +And our earlier energy shows it isn't in the air or in the soil. England +has become unenterprising and sluggish because England has been so +prosperous and comfortable...." + +"Exactly," said Mr. Direck. "My friend of whom I was telling you, was a +man named Robinson, which indicates pretty clearly that he was of +genuine English stock, and, if I may say so, quite of your build and +complexion; racially, I should say, he was, well--very much what you +are...." + + +Section 7 + +This rally of Mr. Direck's mind was suddenly interrupted. + +Mr. Britling stood up, and putting both hands to the sides of his mouth, +shouted "Yi-ah! Aye-ya! Thea!" at unseen hearers. + +After shouting again, several times, it became manifest that he had +attracted the attention of two willing but deliberate labouring men. +They emerged slowly, first as attentive heads, from the landscape. With +their assistance the car was restored to the road again. Mr. Direck +assisted manfully, and noted the respect that was given to Mr. Britling +and the shillings that fell to the men, with an intelligent detachment. +They touched their hats, they called Mr. Britling "Sir." They examined +the car distantly but kindly. "Ain't 'urt 'e, not a bit 'e ain't, not +really," said one encouragingly. And indeed except for a slight +crumpling of the mud-guard and the detachment of the wire of one of the +headlights the automobile was uninjured. Mr. Britling resumed his seat; +Mr. Direck gravely and in silence got up beside him. They started with +the usual convulsion, as though something had pricked the vehicle +unexpectedly and shamefully behind. And from this point Mr. Britling, +driving with meticulous care, got home without further mishap, excepting +only that he scraped off some of the metal edge of his footboard +against the gate-post of his very agreeable garden. + +His family welcomed his safe return, visitor and all, with undisguised +relief and admiration. A small boy appeared at the corner of the house, +and then disappeared hastily again. "Daddy's got back all right at +last," they heard him shouting to unseen hearers. + + +Section 8 + +Mr. Direck, though he was a little incommoded by the suppression of his +story about Robinson--for when he had begun a thing he liked to finish +it--found Mr. Britling's household at once thoroughly British, quite +un-American and a little difficult to follow. It had a quality that at +first he could not define at all. Compared with anything he had ever +seen in his life before it struck him as being--he found the word at +last--sketchy. For instance, he was introduced to nobody except his +hostess, and she was indicated to him by a mere wave of Mr. Britling's +hand. "That's Edith," he said, and returned at once to his car to put it +away. Mrs. Britling was a tall, freckled woman with pretty bright brown +hair and preoccupied brown eyes. She welcomed him with a handshake, and +then a wonderful English parlourmaid--she at least was according to +expectations--took his grip-sack and guided him to his room. "Lunch, +sir," she said, "is outside," and closed the door and left him to that +and a towel-covered can of hot water. + +It was a square-looking old red-brick house he had come to, very +handsome in a simple Georgian fashion, with a broad lawn before it and +great blue cedar trees, and a drive that came frankly up to the front +door and then went off with Mr. Britling and the car round to unknown +regions at the back. The centre of the house was a big airy hall, +oak-panelled, warmed in winter only by one large fireplace and abounding +in doors which he knew opened into the square separate rooms that +England favours. Bookshelves and stuffed birds comforted the landing +outside his bedroom. He descended to find the hall occupied by a small +bright bristling boy in white flannel shirt and knickerbockers and bare +legs and feet. He stood before the vacant open fireplace in an attitude +that Mr. Direck knew instantly was also Mr. Britling's. "Lunch is in the +garden," the Britling scion proclaimed, "and I've got to fetch you. And, +I say! is it true? Are you American?" + +"Why surely," said Mr. Direck. + +"Well, I know some American," said the boy. "I learnt it." + +"Tell me some," said Mr. Direck, smiling still more amiably. + +"Oh! Well--God darn you! Ouch, Gee-whizz! Soak him, Maud! It's up to +you, Duke...." + +"Now where did you learn all that?" asked Mr. Direck recovering. + +"Out of the Sunday Supplement," said the youthful Britling. + +"Why! Then you know all about Buster Brown," said Mr. Direck. "He's +Fine--eh?" + +The Britling child hated Buster Brown. He regarded Buster Brown as a +totally unnecessary infant. He detested the way he wore his hair and the +peculiar cut of his knickerbockers and--him. He thought Buster Brown the +one drop of paraffin in the otherwise delicious feast of the Sunday +Supplement. But he was a diplomatic child. + +"I think I like Happy Hooligan better," he said. "And dat ole Maud." + +He reflected with joyful eyes, Buster clean forgotten. "Every week," he +said, "she kicks some one." + +It came to Mr. Direck as a very pleasant discovery that a British infant +could find a common ground with the small people at home in these +characteristically American jests. He had never dreamt that the fine +wine of Maud and Buster could travel. + +"Maud's a treat," said the youthful Britling, relapsing into his native +tongue. + +Mr. Britling appeared coming to meet them. He was now in a grey flannel +suit--he must have jumped into it--and altogether very much tidier.... + + +Section 9 + +The long narrow table under the big sycamores between the house and the +adapted barn that Mr. Direck learnt was used for "dancing and all that +sort of thing," was covered with a blue linen diaper cloth, and that too +surprised him. This was his first meal in a private household in +England, and for obscure reasons he had expected something very stiff +and formal with "spotless napery." He had also expected a very stiff and +capable service by implacable parlourmaids, and the whole thing indeed +highly genteel. But two cheerful women servants appeared from what was +presumably the kitchen direction, wheeling a curious wicker erection, +which his small guide informed him was called Aunt Clatter--manifestly +deservedly--and which bore on its shelves the substance of the meal. And +while the maids at this migratory sideboard carved and opened bottles +and so forth, the small boy and a slightly larger brother, assisted a +little by two young men of no very defined position and relationship, +served the company. Mrs. Britling sat at the head of the table, and +conversed with Mr. Direck by means of hostess questions and imperfectly +accepted answers while she kept a watchful eye on the proceedings. + +The composition of the company was a matter for some perplexity to Mr. +Direck. Mr. and Mrs. Britling were at either end of the table, that was +plain enough. It was also fairly plain that the two barefooted boys were +little Britlings. But beyond this was a cloud of uncertainty. There was +a youth of perhaps seventeen, much darker than Britling but with nose +and freckles rather like his, who might be an early son or a stepson; he +was shock-headed and with that look about his arms and legs that +suggests overnight growth; and there was an unmistakable young German, +very pink, with close-cropped fair hair, glasses and a panama hat, who +was probably the tutor of the younger boys. (Mr. Direck also was wearing +his hat, his mind had been filled with an exaggerated idea of the +treacheries of the English climate before he left New York. Every one +else was hatless.) Finally, before one reached the limits of the +explicable there was a pleasant young man with a lot of dark hair and +very fine dark blue eyes, whom everybody called "Teddy." For him, Mr. +Direck hazarded "secretary." + +But in addition to these normal and understandable presences, there was +an entirely mysterious pretty young woman in blue linen who sat and +smiled next to Mr. Britling, and there was a rather kindred-looking girl +with darker hair on the right of Mr. Direck who impressed him at the +very outset as being still prettier, and--he didn't quite place her at +first--somehow familiar to him; there was a large irrelevant middle-aged +lady in black with a gold chain and a large nose, between Teddy and the +tutor; there was a tall middle-aged man with an intelligent face, who +might be a casual guest; there was an Indian young gentleman faultlessly +dressed up to his brown soft linen collar and cuffs, and thereafter an +uncontrolled outbreak of fine bronze modelling and abundant fuzzy hair; +and there was a very erect and attentive baby of a year or less, sitting +up in a perambulator and gesticulating cheerfully to everybody. This +baby it was that most troubled the orderly mind of Mr. Direck. The +research for its paternity made his conversation with Mrs. Britling +almost as disconnected and absent-minded as her conversation with him. +It almost certainly wasn't Mrs. Britling's. The girl next to him or the +girl next to Mr. Britling or the lady in black might any of them be +married, but if so where was the spouse? It seemed improbable that they +would wheel out a foundling to lunch.... + +Realising at last that the problem of relationship must be left to solve +itself if he did not want to dissipate and consume his mind entirely, +Mr. Direck turned to his hostess, who was enjoying a brief lull in her +administrative duties, and told her what a memorable thing the meeting +of Mr. Britling in his own home would be in his life, and how very +highly America was coming to esteem Mr. Britling and his essays. He +found that with a slight change of person, one of his premeditated +openings was entirely serviceable here. And he went on to observe that +it was novel and entertaining to find Mr. Britling driving his own +automobile and to note that it was an automobile of American +manufacture. In America they had standardised and systematised the +making of such things as automobiles to an extent that would, he +thought, be almost startling to Europeans. It was certainly startling to +the European manufacturers. In illustration of that he might tell a +little story of a friend of his called Robinson--a man who curiously +enough in general build and appearance was very reminiscent indeed of +Mr. Britling. He had been telling Mr. Britling as much on his way here +from the station. His friend was concerned with several others in one of +the biggest attacks that had ever been made upon what one might describe +in general terms as the thousand-dollar light automobile market. What +they said practically was this: This market is a jig-saw puzzle waiting +to be put together and made one. We are going to do it. But that was +easier to figure out than to do. At the very outset of this attack he +and his associates found themselves up against an unexpected and very +difficult proposition.... + +At first Mrs. Britling had listened to Mr. Direck with an almost +undivided attention, but as he had developed his opening the feast upon +the blue linen table had passed on to a fresh phase that demanded more +and more of her directive intelligence. The two little boys appeared +suddenly at her elbows. "Shall we take the plates and get the +strawberries, Mummy?" they asked simultaneously. Then one of the neat +maids in the background had to be called up and instructed in +undertones, and Mr. Direck saw that for the present Robinson's +illuminating experience was not for her ears. A little baffled, but +quite understanding how things were, he turned to his neighbour on his +left.... + +The girl really had an extraordinarily pretty smile, and there was +something in her soft bright brown eye--like the movement of some quick +little bird. And--she was like somebody he knew! Indeed she was. She was +quite ready to be spoken to. + +"I was telling Mrs. Britling," said Mr. Direck, "what a very great +privilege I esteem it to meet Mr. Britling in this highly familiar way." + +"You've not met him before?" + +"I missed him by twenty-four hours when he came through Boston on the +last occasion. Just twenty-four hours. It was a matter of very great +regret to me." + +"I wish I'd been paid to travel round the world." + +"You must write things like Mr. Britling and then Mr. Kahn will send +you." + +"Don't you think if I promised well?" + +"You'd have to write some promissory notes, I think--just to convince +him it was all right." + +The young lady reflected on Mr. Britling's good fortune. + +"He saw India. He saw Japan. He had weeks in Egypt. And he went right +across America." + +Mr. Direck had already begun on the liner to adapt himself to the +hopping inconsecutiveness of English conversation. He made now what he +felt was quite a good hop, and he dropped his voice to a confidential +undertone. (It was probably Adam in his first conversation with Eve, who +discovered the pleasantness of dropping into a confidential undertone +beside a pretty ear with a pretty wave of hair above it.) + +"It was in India, I presume," murmured Mr. Direck, "that Mr. Britling +made the acquaintance of the coloured gentleman?" + +"Coloured gentleman!" She gave a swift glance down the table as though +she expected to see something purple with yellow spots. "Oh, that is one +of Mr. Lawrence Carmine's young men!" she explained even more +confidentially and with an air of discussing the silver bowl of roses +before him. "He's a great authority on Indian literature, he belongs to +a society for making things pleasant for Indian students in London, and +he has them down." + +"And Mr. Lawrence Carmine?" he pursued. + +Even more intimately and confidentially she indicated Mr. Carmine, as it +seemed by a motion of her eyelash. + +Mr. Direck prepared to be even more _sotto-voce_ and to plumb a much +profounder mystery. His eye rested on the perambulator; he leant a +little nearer to the ear.... But the strawberries interrupted him. + +"Strawberries!" said the young lady, and directed his regard to his left +shoulder by a little movement of her head. + +He found one of the boys with a high-piled plate ready to serve him. + +And then Mrs. Britling resumed her conversation with him. She was so +ignorant, she said, of things American, that she did not even know if +they had strawberries there. At any rate, here they were at the crest of +the season, and in a very good year. And in the rose season too. It was +one of the dearest vanities of English people to think their apples and +their roses and their strawberries the best in the world. + +"And their complexions," said Mr. Direck, over the pyramid of fruit, +quite manifestly intending a compliment. So that was all right.... But +the girl on the left of him was speaking across the table to the German +tutor, and did not hear what he had said. So that even if it wasn't +very neat it didn't matter.... + +Then he remembered that she was like that old daguerreotype of a cousin +of his grandmother's that he had fallen in love with when he was a boy. +It was her smile. Of course! Of course!... And he'd sort of adored that +portrait.... He felt a curious disposition to tell her as much.... + +"What makes this visit even more interesting if possible to me," he said +to Mrs. Britling, "than it would otherwise be, is that this Essex +country is the country in which my maternal grandmother was raised, and +also long way back my mother's father's people. My mother's father's +people were very early New England people indeed.... Well, no. If I said +_Mayflower_ it wouldn't be true. But it would approximate. They were +Essex Hinkinsons. That's what they were. I must be a good third of me at +least Essex. My grandmother was an Essex Corner, I must confess I've had +some thought--" + +"Corner?" said the young lady at his elbow sharply. + +"I was telling Mrs. Britling I had some thought--" + +"But about those Essex relatives of yours?" + +"Well, of finding if they were still about in these parts.... Say! I +haven't dropped a brick, have I?" + +He looked from one face to another. + +"_She's_ a Corner," said Mrs. Britling. + +"Well," said Mr. Direck, and hesitated for a moment. It was so +delightful that one couldn't go on being just discreet. The atmosphere +was free and friendly. His intonation disarmed offence. And he gave the +young lady the full benefit of a quite expressive eye. "I'm very pleased +to meet you, Cousin Corner. How are the old folks at home?" + + +Section 10 + +The bright interest of this consulship helped Mr. Direck more than +anything to get the better of his Robinson-anecdote crave, and when +presently he found his dialogue with Mr. Britling resumed, he turned at +once to this remarkable discovery of his long lost and indeed hitherto +unsuspected relative. "It's an American sort of thing to do, I suppose," +he said apologetically, "but I almost thought of going on, on Monday, to +Market Saffron, which was the locality of the Hinkinsons, and just +looking about at the tombstones in the churchyard for a day or so." + +"Very probably," said Mr. Britling, "you'd find something about them in +the parish registers. Lots of our registers go back three hundred years +or more. I'll drive you over in my lil' old car." + +"Oh! I wouldn't put you to that trouble," said Mr. Direck hastily. + +"It's no trouble. I like the driving. What I have had of it. And while +we're at it, we'll come back by Harborough High Oak and look up the +Corner pedigree. They're all over that district still. And the road's +not really difficult; it's only a bit up and down and roundabout." + +"I couldn't think, Mr. Britling, of putting you to that much trouble." + +"It's no trouble. I want a day off, and I'm dying to take Gladys--" + +"Gladys?" said Mr. Direck with sudden hope. + +"That's my name for the lil' car. I'm dying to take her for something +like a decent run. I've only had her out four times altogether, and I've +not got her up yet to forty miles. Which I'm told she ought to do +easily. We'll consider that settled." + +For the moment Mr. Direck couldn't think of any further excuse. But it +was very clear in his mind that something must happen; he wished he knew +of somebody who could send a recall telegram from London, to prevent him +committing himself to the casual destinies of Mr. Britling's car again. +And then another interest became uppermost in his mind. + +"You'd hardly believe me," he said, "if I told you that that Miss Corner +of yours has a quite extraordinary resemblance to a miniature I've got +away there in America of a cousin of my maternal grandmother's. She +seems a very pleasant young lady." + +But Mr. Britling supplied no further information about Miss Corner. + +"It must be very interesting," he said, "to come over here and pick up +these American families of yours on the monuments and tombstones. You +know, of course, that district south of Evesham where every other church +monument bears the stars and stripes, the arms of departed Washingtons. +I doubt though if you'll still find the name about there. Nor will you +find many Hinkinsons in Market Saffron. But lots of this country here +has five or six hundred-year-old families still flourishing. That's why +Essex is so much more genuinely Old England than Surrey, say, or Kent. +Round here you'll find Corners and Fairlies, and then you get Capels, +and then away down towards Dunmow and Braintree Maynards and Byngs. And +there are oaks and hornbeams in the park about Claverings that have +echoed to the howling of wolves and the clank of men in armour. All the +old farms here are moated--because of the wolves. Claverings itself is +Tudor, and rather fine too. And the cottages still wear thatch...." + +He reflected. "Now if you went south of London instead of northward it's +all different. You're in a different period, a different society. You're +in London suburbs right down to the sea. You'll find no genuine estates +left, not of our deep-rooted familiar sort. You'll find millionaires and +that sort of people, sitting in the old places. Surrey is full of rich +stockbrokers, company-promoters, bookies, judges, newspaper proprietors. +Sort of people who fence the paths across their parks. They do something +to the old places--I don't know what they do--but instantly the +countryside becomes a villadom. And little sub-estates and red-brick +villas and art cottages spring up. And a kind of new, hard neatness. And +pneumatic tyre and automobile spirit advertisements, great glaring +boards by the roadside. And all the poor people are inspected and rushed +about until they forget who their grandfathers were. They become villa +parasites and odd-job men, and grow basely rich and buy gramophones. +This Essex and yonder Surrey are as different as Russia and Germany. But +for one American who comes to look at Essex, twenty go to Godalming and +Guildford and Dorking and Lewes and Canterbury. Those Surrey people are +not properly English at all. They are strenuous. You have to get on or +get out. They drill their gardeners, lecture very fast on agricultural +efficiency, and have miniature rifle ranges in every village. It's a +county of new notice-boards and barbed-wire fences; there's always a +policeman round the corner. They dress for dinner. They dress for +everything. If a man gets up in the night to look for a burglar he puts +on the correct costume--or doesn't go. They've got a special scientific +system for urging on their tramps. And they lock up their churches on a +week-day. Half their soil is hard chalk or a rationalistic sand, only +suitable for bunkers and villa foundations. And they play golf in a +large, expensive, thorough way because it's the thing to do.... Now here +in Essex we're as lax as the eighteenth century. We hunt in any old +clothes. Our soil is a rich succulent clay; it becomes semi-fluid in +winter--when we go about in waders shooting duck. All our fingerposts +have been twisted round by facetious men years ago. And we pool our +breeds of hens and pigs. Our roses and oaks are wonderful; that alone +shows that this is the real England. If I wanted to play golf--which I +don't, being a decent Essex man--I should have to motor ten miles into +Hertfordshire. And for rheumatics and longevity Surrey can't touch us. I +want you to be clear on these points, because they really will affect +your impressions of this place.... This country is a part of the real +England--England outside London and outside manufactures. It's one with +Wessex and Mercia or old Yorkshire--or for the matter of that with Meath +or Lothian. And it's the essential England still...." + + +Section 11 + +It detracted a little from Mr. Direck's appreciation of this flow of +information that it was taking them away from the rest of the company. +He wanted to see more of his new-found cousin, and what the baby and the +Bengali gentleman--whom manifestly one mustn't call "coloured"--and the +large-nosed lady and all the other inexplicables would get up to. +Instead of which Mr. Britling was leading him off alone with an air of +showing him round the premises, and talking too rapidly and variously +for a question to be got in edgeways, much less any broaching of the +matter that Mr. Direck had come over to settle. + +There was quite a lot of rose garden, it made the air delicious, and it +was full of great tumbling bushes of roses and of neglected standards, +and it had a long pergola of creepers and trailers and a great arbour, +and underneath over the beds everywhere, contrary to all the rules, the +blossom of a multitude of pansies and stock and little trailing plants +swarmed and crowded and scrimmaged and drilled and fought great massed +attacks. And then Mr. Britling talked their way round a red-walled +vegetable garden with an abundance of fruit trees, and through a door +into a terraced square that had once been a farmyard, outside the +converted barn. The barn doors had been replaced by a door-pierced +window of glass, and in the middle of the square space a deep tank had +been made, full of rainwater, in which Mr. Britling remarked casually +that "everybody" bathed when the weather was hot. Thyme and rosemary and +suchlike sweet-scented things grew on the terrace about the tank, and +ten trimmed little trees of _Arbor vitae_ stood sentinel. Mr. Direck was +tantalisingly aware that beyond some lilac bushes were his new-found +cousin and the kindred young woman in blue playing tennis with the +Indian and another young man, while whenever it was necessary the +large-nosed lady crossed the stage and brooded soothingly over the +perambulator. And Mr. Britling, choosing a seat from which Mr. Direck +just couldn't look comfortably through the green branches at the flying +glimpses of pink and blue and white and brown, continued to talk about +England and America in relation to each other and everything else under +the sun. + +Presently through a distant gate the two small boys were momentarily +visible wheeling small but serviceable bicycles, followed after a little +interval by the German tutor. Then an enormous grey cat came slowly +across the garden court, and sat down to listen respectfully to Mr. +Britling. The afternoon sky was an intense blue, with little puff-balls +of cloud lined out across it. + +Occasionally, from chance remarks of Mr. Britling's, Mr. Direck was led +to infer that his first impressions as an American visitor were being +related to his host, but as a matter of fact he was permitted to relate +nothing; Mr. Britling did all the talking. He sat beside his guest and +spirted and played ideas and reflections like a happy fountain in the +sunshine. + +Mr. Direck sat comfortably, and smoked with quiet appreciation the one +after-lunch cigar he allowed himself. At any rate, if he himself felt +rather word-bound, the fountain was nimble and entertaining. He listened +in a general sort of way to the talk, it was quite impossible to follow +it thoughtfully throughout all its chinks and turnings, while his eyes +wandered about the garden and went ever and again to the flitting +tennis-players beyond the green. It was all very gay and comfortable and +complete; it was various and delightful without being in the least +_opulent_; that was one of the little secrets America had to learn. It +didn't look as though it had been made or bought or cost anything, it +looked as though it had happened rather luckily.... + +Mr. Britling's talk became like a wide stream flowing through Mr. +Direck's mind, bearing along momentary impressions and observations, +drifting memories of all the crowded English sights and sounds of the +last five days, filmy imaginations about ancestral names and pretty +cousins, scraps of those prepared conversational openings on Mr. +Britling's standing in America, the explanation about the lecture club, +the still incompletely forgotten purport of the Robinson anecdote.... + +"Nobody planned the British estate system, nobody planned the British +aristocratic system, nobody planned the confounded constitution, it came +about, it was like layer after layer wrapping round an agate, but you +see it came about so happily in a way, it so suited the climate and the +temperament of our people and our island, it was on the whole so cosy, +that our people settled down into it, you can't help settling down into +it, they had already settled down by the days of Queen Anne, and Heaven +knows if we shall ever really get away again. We're like that little +shell the _Lingula_, that is found in the oldest rocks and lives to-day: +it fitted its easy conditions, and it has never modified since. Why +should it? It excretes all its disturbing forces. Our younger sons go +away and found colonial empires. Our surplus cottage children emigrate +to Australia and Canada or migrate into the towns. It doesn't alter +_this_...." + + +Section 12 + +Mr. Direck's eye had come to rest upon the barn, and its expression +changed slowly from lazy appreciation to a brightening intelligence. +Suddenly he resolved to say something. He resolved to say it so firmly +that he determined to say it even if Mr. Britling went on talking all +the time. + +"I suppose, Mr. Britling," he said, "this barn here dates from the days +of Queen Anne." + +"The walls of the yard here are probably earlier: probably monastic. +That grey patch in the corner, for example. The barn itself is +Georgian." + +"And here it is still. And this farmyard, here it is still." + +Mr. Britling was for flying off again, but Mr. Direck would not listen; +he held on like a man who keeps his grip on a lasso. + +"There's one thing I would like to remark about your barn, Mr. Britling, +and I might, while I am at it, say the same thing about your farmyard." + +Mr. Britling was held. "What's that?" he asked. + +"Well," said Mr. Direck, "the point that strikes me most about all this +is that that barn isn't a barn any longer, and that this farmyard isn't +a farmyard. There isn't any wheat or chaff or anything of that sort in +the barn, and there never will be again: there's just a pianola and a +dancing floor, and if a cow came into this farmyard everybody in the +place would be shooing it out again. They'd regard it as a most +unnatural object." + +He had a pleasant sense of talking at last. He kept right on. He was +moved to a sweeping generalisation. + +"You were so good as to ask me, Mr. Britling, a little while ago, what +my first impression of England was. Well, Mr. Britling, my first +impression of England that seems to me to matter in the least is this: +that it looks and feels more like the traditional Old England than any +one could possibly have believed, and that in reality it is less like +the traditional Old England than any one would ever possibly have +imagined." + +He was carried on even further. He made a tremendous literary epigram. +"I thought," he said, "when I looked out of the train this morning that +I had come to the England of Washington Irving. I find it is not even +the England of Mrs. Humphry Ward." + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +MR. BRITLING CONTINUES HIS EXPOSITION + + +Section 1 + +Mr. Direck found little reason to revise his dictum in the subsequent +experiences of the afternoon. Indeed the afternoon and the next day were +steadily consistent in confirming what a very good dictum it had been. +The scenery was the traditional scenery of England, and all the people +seemed quicker, more irresponsible, more chaotic, than any one could +have anticipated, and entirely inexplicable by any recognised code of +English relationships.... + +"You think that John Bull is dead and a strange generation is wearing +his clothes," said Mr. Britling. "I think you'll find very soon it's the +old John Bull. Perhaps not Mrs. Humphry Ward's John Bull, or Mrs. Henry +Wood's John Bull but true essentially to Shakespeare, Fielding, Dickens, +Meredith...." + +"I suppose," he added, "there are changes. There's a new generation +grown up...." + +He looked at his barn and the swimming pool. "It's a good point of yours +about the barn," he said. "What you say reminds me of that very jolly +thing of Kipling's about the old mill-wheel that began by grinding corn +and ended by driving dynamos.... + +"Only I admit that barn doesn't exactly drive a dynamo.... + +"To be frank, it's just a pleasure barn.... + +"The country can afford it...." + + +Section 2 + +He left it at that for the time, but throughout the afternoon Mr. Direck +had the gratification of seeing his thought floating round and round in +the back-waters of Mr. Britling's mental current. If it didn't itself +get into the stream again its reflection at any rate appeared and +reappeared. He was taken about with great assiduity throughout the +afternoon, and he got no more than occasional glimpses of the rest of +the Dower House circle until six o'clock in the evening. + +Meanwhile the fountains of Mr. Britling's active and encyclopaedic mind +played steadily. + +He was inordinately proud of England, and he abused her incessantly. He +wanted to state England to Mr. Direck as the amiable summation of a +grotesque assembly of faults. That was the view into which the comforts +and prosperities of his middle age had brought him from a radicalism +that had in its earlier stages been angry and bitter. And for Mr. +Britling England was "here." Essex was the county he knew. He took Mr. +Direck out from his walled garden by a little door into a trim paddock +with two white goals. "We play hockey here on Sundays," he said in a way +that gave Mr. Direck no hint of the practically compulsory participation +of every visitor to Matching's Easy in this violent and dangerous +exercise, and thence they passed by a rich deep lane and into a high +road that ran along the edge of the deer park of Claverings. "We will +call in on Claverings later," said Mr. Britling. "Lady Homartyn has some +people there for the week-end, and you ought to see the sort of thing it +is and the sort of people they are. She wanted us to lunch there +to-morrow, but I didn't accept that because of our afternoon hockey." + +Mr. Direck received this reason uncritically. + +The village reminded Mr. Direck of Abbey's pictures. There was an inn +with a sign standing out in the road, a painted sign of the Clavering +Arms; it had a water trough (such as Mr. Weller senior ducked the +dissenter in) and a green painted table outside its inviting door. There +were also a general shop and a number of very pleasant cottages, each +marked with the Mainstay crest. All this was grouped about a green with +real geese drilling thereon. Mr. Britling conducted his visitor (through +a lych gate) into the church-yard, and there they found mossy, +tumble-down tombstones, one with a skull and cross-bones upon it, that +went back to the later seventeenth century. In the aisle of the church +were three huge hatchments, and there was a side chapel devoted to the +Mainstay family and the Barons Homartyn, with a series of monuments that +began with painted Tudor effigies and came down to a vast stained glass +window of the vilest commercial Victorian. There were also mediaeval +brasses of parish priests, and a marble crusader and his lady of some +extinguished family which had ruled Matching's Easy before the Mainstays +came. And as the two gentlemen emerged from the church they ran against +the perfect vicar, Mr. Dimple, ample and genial, with an embracing laugh +and an enveloping voice. "Come to see the old country," he said to Mr. +Direck. "So Good of you Americans to do that! So Good of you...." + +There was some amiable sparring between the worthy man and Mr. Britling +about bringing Mr. Direck to church on Sunday morning. "He's terribly +Lax," said Mr. Dimple to Mr. Direck, smiling radiantly. "Terribly Lax. +But then nowadays Everybody _is_ so Lax. And he's very Good to my Coal +Club; I don't know what we should do without him. So I just admonish +him. And if he doesn't go to church, well, anyhow he doesn't go anywhere +else. He may be a poor churchman, but anyhow he's not a dissenter...." + +"In England, you see," Mr. Britling remarked, after they had parted from +the reverend gentleman, "we have domesticated everything. We have even +domesticated God." + +For awhile Mr. Britling showed Mr. Direck English lanes, and then came +back along narrow white paths across small fields of rising wheat, to +the village and a little gate that led into the park. + +"Well," said Mr. Direck, "what you say about domestication does seem to +me to be very true indeed. Why! even those clouds up there look as +though they had a shepherd and were grazing." + +"Ready for shearing almost," said Mr. Britling. + +"Indeed," said Mr. Direck, raising his voice a little, "I've seen +scarcely anything in England that wasn't domesticated, unless it was +some of your back streets in London." + +Mr. Britling seemed to reflect for a moment. "They're an excrescence," +he said.... + + +Section 3 + +The park had a trim wildness like nature in an old Italian picture; +dappled fallow deer grouped close at hand and looked at the two men +fearlessly; the path dropped through oak trees and some stunted bracken +to a little loitering stream, that paused ever and again to play at +ponds and waterfalls and bear a fleet of water-lily leaves; and then +their way curved round in an indolent sweep towards the cedars and +shrubberies of the great house. The house looked low and extensive to an +American eye, and its red-brick chimneys rose like infantry in open +order along its extended line. There was a glimpse of flower-bright +garden and terraces to the right as they came round the corner to the +front of the house through a path cut in the laurel bushes. + +Mr. Britling had a moment of exposition as they approached the entrance. + +"I expect we shall find Philbert from the Home Office--or is it the +Local Government Board?--and Sir Thomas Loot, the Treasury man. There +may be some other people of that sort, the people we call the Governing +Class. Wives also. And I rather fancy the Countess of Frensham is +coming, she's strong on the Irish Question, and Lady Venetia +Trumpington, who they say is a beauty--I've never seen her. It's Lady +Homartyn's way to expect me to come in--not that I'm an important item +at these week-end social feasts--but she likes to see me on the +table--to be nibbled at if any one wants to do so--like the olives and +the salted almonds. And she always asks me to lunch on Sunday and I +always refuse--because of the hockey. So you see I put in an appearance +on the Saturday afternoon...." + +They had reached the big doorway. + +It opened into a large cool hall adorned with the heads of hippopotami +and rhinoceroses and a stuffed lion, and furnished chiefly with a vast +table on which hats and sticks and newspapers were littered. A +manservant with a subdued, semi-confidential manner, conveyed to Mr. +Britling that her ladyship was on the terrace, and took the hats and +sticks that were handed to him and led the way through the house. They +emerged upon a broad terrace looking out under great cedar trees upon +flower beds and stone urns and tennis lawns and yew hedges that dipped +to give a view of distant hills. On the terrace were grouped perhaps a +dozen people for the most part holding teacups, they sat in deck chairs +and folding seats about a little table that bore the tea-things. Lady +Homartyn came forward to welcome the newcomers. + +Mr. Direck was introduced as a travelling American gratified to see a +typical English country house, and Lady Homartyn in an habituated way +ran over the points of her Tudor specimen. Mr. Direck was not accustomed +to titled people, and was suddenly in doubt whether you called a +baroness "My Lady" or "Your Ladyship," so he wisely avoided any form of +address until he had a lead from Mr. Britling. Mr. Britling presently +called her "Lady Homartyn." She took Mr. Direck and sat him down beside +a lady whose name he didn't catch, but who had had a lot to do with the +British Embassy at Washington, and then she handed Mr. Britling over to +the Rt. Honble. George Philbert, who was anxious to discuss certain +points in the latest book of essays. The conversation of the lady from +Washington was intelligent but not exacting, and Mr. Direck was able to +give a certain amount of attention to the general effect of the scene. + +He was a little disappointed to find that the servants didn't wear +livery. In American magazine pictures and in American cinematograph +films of English stories and in the houses of very rich Americans living +in England, they do so. And the Mansion House is misleading; he had met +a compatriot who had recently dined at the Mansion House, and who had +described "flunkeys" in hair-powder and cloth of gold--like Thackeray's +Jeames Yellowplush. But here the only servants were two slim, discreet +and attentive young gentlemen in black coats with a gentle piety in +their manner instead of pride. And he was a little disappointed too by a +certain lack of splendour in the company. The ladies affected him as +being ill-dressed; there was none of the hard snap, the "_There!_ and +what do you say to it?" about them of the well-dressed American woman, +and the men too were not so much tailored as unobtrusively and yet +grammatically clothed. + + +Section 4 + +He was still only in the fragmentary stage of conversation when +everything was thrown into commotion by the important arrival of Lady +Frensham, and there was a general reshuffling of places. Lady Frensham +had arrived from London by automobile; she appeared in veils and +swathings and a tremendous dust cloak, with a sort of nephew in her +train who had driven the car. She was manifestly a constitutionally +triumphant woman. A certain afternoon lassitude vanished in the swirl +of her arrival. Mr. Philbert removed wrappings and handed them to the +manservant. + +"I lunched with Sir Edward Carson to-day, my dear," she told Lady +Homartyn, and rolled a belligerent eye at Philbert. + +"And is he as obdurate as ever?" asked Sir Thomas. + +"Obdurate! It's Redmond who's obdurate," cried Lady Frensham. "What do +you say, Mr. Britling?" + +"A plague on both your parties," said Mr. Britling. + +"You can't keep out of things like that," said Lady Frensham with the +utmost gusto, "when the country's on the very verge of civil war.... You +people who try to pretend there isn't a grave crisis when there is one, +will be more accountable than any one--when the civil war does come. It +won't spare you. Mark my words!" + +The party became a circle. + +Mr. Direck found himself the interested auditor of a real English +country-house week-end political conversation. This at any rate was like +the England of which Mrs. Humphry Ward's novels had informed him, but +yet not exactly like it. Perhaps that was due to the fact that for the +most part these novels dealt with the England of the 'nineties, and +things had lost a little in dignity since those days. But at any rate +here were political figures and titled people, and they were talking +about the "country."... + +Was it possible that people of this sort did "run" the country, after +all?... When he had read Mrs. Humphry Ward in America he had always +accepted this theory of the story quite easily, but now that he saw and +heard them--! + +But all governments and rulers and ruling classes when you look at them +closely are incredible.... + +"I don't believe the country is on the verge of civil war," said Mr. +Britling. + +"Facts!" cried Lady Frensham, and seemed to wipe away delusions with a +rapid gesture of her hands. + +"You're interested in Ireland, Mr. Dirks?" asked Lady Homartyn. + +"We see it first when we come over," said Mr. Direck rather neatly, and +after that he was free to attend to the general discussion. + +Lady Frensham, it was manifest, was one of that energetic body of +aristocratic ladies who were taking up an irreconcilable attitude +against Home Rule "in any shape or form" at that time. They were rapidly +turning British politics into a system of bitter personal feuds in which +all sense of imperial welfare was lost. A wild ambition to emulate the +extremest suffragettes seems to have seized upon them. They insulted, +they denounced, they refused every invitation lest they should meet that +"traitor" the Prime Minister, they imitated the party hatreds of a +fiercer age, and even now the moderate and politic Philbert found +himself treated as an invisible object. They were supported by the +extremer section of the Tory press, and the most extraordinary writers +were set up to froth like lunatics against the government as "traitors," +as men who "insulted the King"; the _Morning Post_ and the +lighter-witted side of the Unionist press generally poured out a torrent +of partisan nonsense it is now almost incredible to recall. Lady +Frensham, bridling over Lady Homartyn's party, and for a time leaving +Mr. Britling, hurried on to tell of the newest developments of the great +feud. She had a wonderful description of Lady Londonderry sitting +opposite "that old rascal, the Prime Minister," at a performance of +Mozart's _Zauberfloete_. + +"If looks could kill!" cried Lady Frensham with tremendous gusto. + +"Sir Edward is quite firm that Ulster means to fight. They have +machine-guns--ammunition. And I am sure the army is with us...." + +"Where did they get those machine-guns and ammunition?" asked Mr. +Britling suddenly. + +"Ah! that's a secret," cried Lady Frensham. + +"Um," said Mr. Britling. + +"You see," said Lady Frensham; "it _will_ be civil war! And yet you +writing people who have influence do nothing to prevent it!" + +"What are we to do, Lady Frensham?" + +"Tell people how serious it is." + +"You mean, tell the Irish Nationalists to lie down and be walked over. +They won't be...." + +"We'll see about that," cried Lady Frensham, "we'll see about that!" + +She was a large and dignified person with a kind of figure-head nobility +of carriage, but Mr. Direck was suddenly reminded of a girl cousin of +his who had been expelled from college for some particularly elaborate +and aimless rioting.... + +"May I say something to you, Lady Frensham," said Mr. Britling, "that +you have just said to me? Do you realise that this Carsonite campaign is +dragging these islands within a measurable distance of civil war?" + +"It's the fault of your Lloyd George and his government. It's the fault +of your Socialists and sentimentalists. You've made the mischief and you +have to deal with it." + +"Yes. But do you really figure to yourself what a civil war may mean for +the empire? Surely there are other things in the world besides this +quarrel between the 'loyalists' of Ulster and the Liberal government; +there are other interests in this big empire than party advantages? Yon +think you are going to frighten this Home Rule government into some +ridiculous sort of collapse that will bring in the Tories at the next +election. Well, suppose you don't manage that. Suppose instead that you +really do contrive to bring about a civil war. Very few people here or +in Ireland want it--I was over there not a month ago--but when men have +loaded guns in their hands they sometimes go off. And then people see +red. Few people realise what an incurable sore opens when fighting +begins. Suppose part of the army revolts and we get some extraordinary +and demoralising fighting over there. India watches these things. Bengal +may imitate Ireland. At that distance rebellion and treason are +rebellion and treason whether they are coloured orange or green. And +then suppose the Germans see fit to attack us!" + +Lady Frensham had a woman's elusiveness. "Your Redmondites would welcome +them with open arms." + +"It isn't the Redmondites who invite them now, anyhow," said Mr. +Britling, springing his mine. "The other day one of your 'loyalists,' +Andrews, was talking in the _Morning Post_ of preferring conquest by +Germany to Home Rule; Craig has been at the same game; Major Crawford, +the man who ran the German Mausers last April, boasted that he would +transfer his allegiance to the German Emperor rather than see Redmond in +power." + +"Rhetoric!" said Lady Frensham. "Rhetoric!" + +"But one of your Ulster papers has openly boasted that arrangements have +been made for a 'powerful Continental monarch' to help an Ulster +rebellion." + +"Which paper?" snatched Lady Frensham. + +Mr. Britling hesitated. + +Mr. Philbert supplied the name. "I saw it. It was the _Irish +Churchman_." + +"You two have got your case up very well," said Lady Frensham. "I didn't +know Mr. Britling was a party man." + +"The Nationalists have been circulating copies," said Philbert. +"Naturally." + +"They make it look worse than mere newspaper talk and speeches," Mr. +Britling pressed. "Carson, it seems, was lunching with the German +Emperor last autumn. A fine fuss you'd make if Redmond did that. All +this gun-running, too, is German gun-running." + +"What does it matter if it is?" said Lady Frensham, allowing a +belligerent eye to rest for the first time on Philbert. "You drove us to +it. One thing we are resolved upon at any cost. Johnny Redmond may rule +England if he likes; he shan't rule Ireland...." + +Mr. Britling shrugged his shoulders, and his face betrayed despair. + +"My one consolation," he said, "in this storm is a talk I had last month +with a young Irishwoman in Meath. She was a young person of twelve, and +she took a fancy to me--I think because I went with her in an alleged +dangerous canoe she was forbidden to navigate alone. All day the eternal +Irish Question had banged about over her observant head. When we were +out on the water she suddenly decided to set me right upon a disregarded +essential. 'You English,' she said, 'are just a bit disposed to take all +this trouble seriously. Don't you fret yourself about it... Half the +time we're just laffing at you. You'd best leave us all alone....'" + +And then he went off at a tangent from his own anecdote. + +"But look at this miserable spectacle!" he cried. "Here is a chance of +getting something like a reconciliation of the old feud of English and +Irish, and something like a settlement of these ancient distresses, and +there seems no power, no conscience, no sanity in any of us, sufficient +to save it from this cantankerous bitterness, this sheer wicked mischief +of mutual exasperation.... Just when Ireland is getting a gleam of +prosperity.... A murrain on both your parties!" + +"I see, Mr. Britling, you'd hand us all over to Jim Larkin!" + +"I'd hand you all over to Sir Horace Plunkett--" + +"That doctrinaire dairyman!" cried Lady Frensham, with an air of quite +conclusive repartee. "You're hopeless, Mr. Britling. You're hopeless." + +And Lady Homartyn, seeing that the phase of mere personal verdicts drew +near, created a diversion by giving Lady Frensham a second cup of tea, +and fluttering like a cooling fan about the heated brows of the +disputants. She suggested tennis.... + + +Section 5 + +Mr. Britling was still flushed and ruffled as he and his guest returned +towards the Dower House. He criticised England himself unmercifully, but +he hated to think that in any respect she fell short of perfection; even +her defects he liked to imagine were just a subtler kind of power and +wisdom. And Lady Frensham had stuck her voice and her gestures through +all these amiable illusions. He was like a lover who calls his lady a +foolish rogue, and is startled to find that facts and strangers do +literally agree with him. + +But it was so difficult to resolve Lady Frensham and the Irish squabble +generally into anything better than idiotic mischief, that for a time he +was unusually silent--wrestling with the problem, and Mr. Direck got the +conversational initiative. + +"To an American mind it's a little--startling," said Mr. Direck, "to +hear ladies expressing such vigorous political opinions." + +"I don't mind that," said Mr. Britling. "Women over here go into +politics and into public-houses--I don't see why they shouldn't. If such +things are good enough for men they are good enough for women; we +haven't your sort of chivalry. But it's the peculiar malignant silliness +of this sort of Toryism that's so discreditable. It's discreditable. +There's no good in denying it. Those people you have heard and seen are +a not unfair sample of our governing class--of a certain section of our +governing class--as it is to-day. Not at all unfair. And you see how +amazingly they haven't got hold of anything. There was a time when they +could be politic.... Hidden away they have politic instincts even +now.... But it makes me sick to think of this Irish business. Because, +you know, it's true--we _are_ drifting towards civil war there." + +"You are of that opinion?" said Mr. Direck. + +"Well, isn't it so? Here's all this Ulster gun-running--you heard how +she talked of it? Isn't it enough to drive the south into open +revolt?..." + +"Is there very much, do you think, in the suggestion that some of this +Ulster trouble is a German intrigue? You and Mr. Philbert were saying +things--" + +"I don't know," said Mr. Britling shortly. + +"I don't know," he repeated. "But it isn't because I don't think our +Unionists and their opponents aren't foolish enough for anything of the +sort. It's only because I don't believe that the Germans are so stupid +as to do such things.... Why should they?... + +"It makes me--expressionless with anger," said Mr. Britling after a +pause, reverting to his main annoyance. "They won't consider any +compromise. It's sheer love of quarrelling.... Those people there think +that nothing can possibly happen. They are like children in a nursery +playing at rebellion. Unscathed and heedless. Until there is death at +their feet they will never realise they are playing with loaded +guns...." + +For a time he said no more; and listened perfunctorily while Mr. Direck +tried to indicate the feeling in New England towards the Irish Question +and the many difficult propositions an American politician has to face +in that respect. And when Mr. Britling took up the thread of speech +again it had little or no relation to Mr. Direck's observations. + +"The psychology of all this recent insubordination and violence +is--curious. Exasperating too.... I don't quite grasp it.... It's the +same thing whether you look at the suffrage business or the labour +people or at this Irish muddle. People may be too safe. You see we live +at the end of a series of secure generations in which none of the great +things of life have changed materially. We've grown up with no sense of +danger--that is to say, with no sense of responsibility. None of us, +none of us--for though I talk my actions belie me--really believe that +life can change very fundamentally any more forever. All this",--Mr. +Britling waved his arm comprehensively--"looks as though it was bound to +go on steadily forever. It seems incredible that the system could be +smashed. It seems incredible that anything we can do will ever smash the +system. Lady Homartyn, for example, is incapable of believing that she +won't always be able to have week-end parties at Claverings, and that +the letters and the tea won't come to her bedside in the morning. Or if +her imagination goes to the point of supposing that some day _she_ won't +be there to receive the tea, it means merely that she supposes somebody +else will be. Her pleasant butler may fear to lose his 'situation,' but +nothing on earth could make him imagine a time when there will not be a +'situation' for him to lose. Old Asquith thinks that we always have got +along, and that we always shall get along by being quietly artful and +saying, 'Wait and see.' And it's just because we are all convinced that +we are so safe against a general breakdown that we are able to be so +recklessly violent in our special cases. Why shouldn't women have the +vote? they argue. What does it matter? And bang goes a bomb in +Westminster Abbey. Why shouldn't Ulster create an impossible position? +And off trots some demented Carsonite to Germany to play at treason on +some half word of the German Emperor's and buy half a million rifles.... + +"Exactly like children being very, very naughty.... + +"And," said Mr. Britling with a gesture to round off his discourse, "we +do go on. We shall go on--until there is a spark right into the +magazine. We have lost any belief we ever had that fundamental things +happen. We are everlasting children in an everlasting nursery...." + +And immediately he broke out again. + +"The truth of the matter is that hardly any one has ever yet mastered +the fact that the world is round. The world is round--like an orange. +The thing is told us--like any old scandal--at school. For all +practical purposes we forget it. Practically we all live in a world as +flat as a pancake. Where time never ends and nothing changes. Who really +believes in any world outside the circle of the horizon? Here we are and +visibly nothing is changing. And so we go on to--nothing will ever +change. It just goes on--in space, in time. If we could realise that +round world beyond, then indeed we should go circumspectly.... If the +world were like a whispering gallery, what whispers might we not hear +now--from India, from Africa, from Germany, warnings from the past, +intimations of the future.... + +"We shouldn't heed them...." + + +Section 6 + +And indeed at the very moment when Mr. Britling was saying these words, +in Sarajevo in Bosnia, where the hour was somewhat later, men whispered +together, and one held nervously to a black parcel that had been given +him and nodded as they repeated his instructions, a black parcel with +certain unstable chemicals and a curious arrangement of detonators +therein, a black parcel destined ultimately to shatter nearly every +landmark of Mr. Britling's and Lady Frensham's cosmogony.... + + +Section 7 + +When Mr. Direck and Mr. Britling returned to the Dower House the guest +was handed over to Mrs. Britling and Mr. Britling vanished, to reappear +at supper time, for the Britlings had a supper in the evening instead of +dinner. When Mr. Britling did reappear every trace of his vexation with +the levities of British politics and the British ruling class had +vanished altogether, and he was no longer thinking of all that might be +happening in Germany or India.... + +While he was out of the way Mr. Direck extended his acquaintance with +the Britling household. He was taken round the garden and shown the +roses by Mrs. Britling, and beyond the rose garden in a little arbour +they came upon Miss Corner reading a book. She looked very grave and +pretty reading a book. Mr. Direck came to a pause in front of her, and +Mrs. Britling stopped beside him. The young lady looked up and smiled. + +"The last new novel?" asked Mr. Direck pleasantly. + +"Campanella's 'City of the Sun.'" + +"My word! but isn't that stiff reading?" + +"You haven't read it," said Miss Corner. + +"It's a dry old book anyhow." + +"It's no good pretending you have," she said, and there Mr. Direck felt +the conversation had to end. + +"That's a very pleasant young lady to have about," he said to Mrs. +Britling as they went on towards the barn court. + +"She's all at loose ends," said Mrs. Britling. "And she reads like +a--Whatever does read? One drinks like a fish. One eats like a wolf." + +They found the German tutor in a little court playing Badminton with the +two younger boys. He was a plump young man with glasses and compact +gestures; the game progressed chiefly by misses and the score was +counted in German. He won thoughtfully and chiefly through the ardour of +the younger brother, whose enthusiastic returns invariably went out. +Instantly the boys attacked Mrs. Britling with a concerted enthusiasm. +"Mummy! Is it to be dressing-up supper?" + +Mrs. Britling considered, and it was manifest that Mr. Direck was +material to her answer. + +"We wrap ourselves up in curtains and bright things instead of +dressing," she explained. "We have a sort of wardrobe of fancy dresses. +Do you mind?" + +Mr. Direck was delighted. + +And this being settled, the two small boys went off with their mother +upon some special decorative project they had conceived and Mr. Direck +was left for a time to Herr Heinrich. + +Herr Heinrich suggested a stroll in the rose garden, and as Mr. Direck +had not hitherto been shown the rose garden by Herr Heinrich, he agreed. +Sooner or later everybody, it was evident, had got to show him that rose +garden. + +"And how do you like living in an English household?" said Mr. Direck, +getting to business at once. "It's interesting to an American to see +this English establishment, and it must be still more interesting to a +German." + +"I find it very different from Pomerania," said Herr Heinrich. "In some +respects it is more agreeable, in others less so. It is a pleasant life +but it is not a serious life. + +"At any time," continued Herr Heinrich, "some one may say, 'Let us do +this thing,' or 'Let us do that thing,' and then everything is +disarranged. + +"People walk into the house without ceremony. There is much kindness but +no politeness. Mr. Britling will go away for three or four days, and +when he returns and I come forward to greet him and bow, he will walk +right past me, or he will say just like this, 'How do, Heinrich?'" + +"Are you interested in Mr. Britling's writings?" Mr. Direck asked. + +"There again I am puzzled. His work is known even in Germany. His +articles are reprinted in German and Austrian reviews. You would expect +him to have a certain authority of manner. You would expect there to be +discussion at the table upon questions of philosophy and aesthetics.... +It is not so. When I ask him questions it is often that they are not +seriously answered. Sometimes it is as if he did not like the questions +I askt of him. Yesterday I askt of him did he agree or did he not agree +with Mr. Bernard Shaw. He just said--I wrote it down in my memoranda--he +said: 'Oh! Mixt Pickles.' What can one understand of that?--Mixt +Pickles!"... + +The young man's sedulous blue eyes looked out of his pink face through +his glasses at Mr. Direck, anxious for any light he could offer upon the +atmospheric vagueness of this England. + +He was, he explained, a student of philology preparing for his +doctorate. He had not yet done his year of military service. He was +studying the dialects of East Anglia-- + +"You go about among the people?" Mr. Direck inquired. + +"No, I do not do that. But I ask Mr. Carmine and Mrs. Britling and the +boys many questions. And sometimes I talk to the gardener." + +He explained how he would prepare his thesis and how it would be +accepted, and the nature of his army service and the various stages by +which he would subsequently ascend in the orderly professorial life to +which he was destined. He confessed a certain lack of interest in +philology, but, he said, "it is what I have to do." And so he was going +to do it all his life through. For his own part he was interested in +ideas of universal citizenship, in Esperanto and Ido and universal +languages and such-like attacks upon the barriers between man and man. +But the authorities at home did not favour cosmopolitan ideas, and so he +was relinquishing them. "Here, it is as if there were no authorities," +he said with a touch of envy. + +Mr. Direck induced him to expand that idea. + +Herr Heinrich made Mr. Britling his instance. If Mr. Britling were a +German he would certainly have some sort of title, a definite position, +responsibility. Here he was not even called Herr Doktor. He said what he +liked. Nobody rewarded him; nobody reprimanded him. When Herr Heinrich +asked him of his position, whether he was above or below Mr. Bernard +Shaw or Mr. Arnold White or Mr. Garvin or any other publicist, he made +jokes. Nobody here seemed to have a title and nobody seemed to have a +definite place. There was Mr. Lawrence Carmine; he was a student of +Oriental questions; he had to do with some public institution in London +that welcomed Indian students; he was a Geheimrath-- + +"Eh?" said Mr. Direck. + +"It is--what do they call it? the Essex County Council." But nobody took +any notice of that. And when Mr. Philbert, who was a minister in the +government, came to lunch he was just like any one else. It was only +after he had gone that Herr Heinrich had learnt by chance that he was a +minister and "Right Honourable...." + +"In Germany everything is definite. Every man knows his place, has his +papers, is instructed what to do...." + +"Yet," said Mr. Direck, with his eyes on the glowing roses, the neat +arbour, the long line of the red wall of the vegetable garden and a +distant gleam of cornfield, "it all looks orderly enough." + +"It is as if it had been put in order ages ago," said Herr Heinrich. + +"And was just going on by habit," said Mr. Direck, taking up the idea. + +Their comparisons were interrupted by the appearance of "Teddy," the +secretary, and the Indian young gentleman, damp and genial, as they +explained, "from the boats." It seemed that "down below" somewhere was a +pond with a punt and an island and a toy dinghy. And while they +discussed swimming and boating, Mr. Carmine appeared from the direction +of the park conversing gravely with the elder son. They had been for a +walk and a talk together. There were proposals for a Badminton foursome. +Mr. Direck emerged from the general interchange with Mr. Lawrence +Carmine, and then strolled through the rose garden to see the sunset +from the end. Mr. Direck took the opportunity to verify his impression +that the elder son was the present Mrs. Britling's stepson, and he also +contrived by a sudden admiration for a distant row of evening primroses +to deflect their path past the arbour in which the evening light must +now be getting a little too soft for Miss Corner's book. + +Miss Corner was drawn into the sunset party. She talked to Mr. Carmine +and displayed, Mr. Direck thought, great originality of mind. She said +"The City of the Sun" was like the cities the boys sometimes made on the +playroom floor. She said it was the dearest little city, and gave some +amusing particulars. She described the painted walls that made the tour +of the Civitas Solis a liberal education. She asked Mr. Carmine, who was +an authority on Oriental literature, why there were no Indian nor +Chinese Utopias. + +Now it had never occurred to Mr. Direck to ask why there were no Indian +nor Chinese Utopias, and even Mr. Carmine seemed surprised to discover +this deficiency. + +"The primitive patriarchal village _is_ Utopia to India and China," said +Mr. Carmine, when they had a little digested the inquiry. "Or at any +rate it is their social ideal. They want no Utopias." + +"Utopias came with cities," he said, considering the question. "And the +first cities, as distinguished from courts and autocratic capitals, came +with ships. India and China belong to an earlier age. Ships, trade, +disorder, strange relationships, unofficial literature, criticism--and +then this idea of some novel remaking of society...." + + +Section 8 + +Then Mr. Direck fell into the hands of Hugh, the eldest son, and +anticipating the inevitable, said that he liked to walk in the rose +garden. So they walked in the rose garden. + +"Do you read Utopias?" said Mr. Direck, cutting any preface, in the +English manner. + +"Oh, _rather_!" said Hugh, and became at once friendly and confidential. + +"We all do," he explained. "In England everybody talks of change and +nothing ever changes." + +"I found Miss Corner reading--what was it? the Sun People?--some old +classical Italian work." + +"Campanella," said Hugh, without betraying the slightest interest in +Miss Corner. "Nothing changes in England, because the people who want to +change things change their minds before they change anything else. I've +been in London talking for the last half-year. Studying art they call +it. Before that I was a science student, and I want to be one again. +Don't you think, Sir, there's something about science--it's steadier +than anything else in the world?" + +Mr. Direck thought that the moral truths of human nature were steadier +than science, and they had one of those little discussions of real life +that begin about a difference inadequately apprehended, and do not so +much end as are abandoned. Hugh struck him as being more speculative and +detached than any American college youth of his age that he knew--but +that might not be a national difference but only the Britling strain. He +seemed to have read more and more independently, and to be doing less. +And he was rather more restrained and self-possessed. + +Before Mr. Direck could begin a proper inquiry into the young man's work +and outlook, he had got the conversation upon America. He wanted +tremendously to see America. "The dad says in one of his books that over +here we are being and that over there you are beginning. It must be +tremendously stimulating to think that your country is still being +made...." + +Mr. Direck thought that an interesting point of view. "Unless something +tumbles down here, we never think of altering it," the young man +remarked. "And even then we just shore it up." + +His remarks had the effect of floating off from some busy mill of +thought within him. Hitherto Mr. Direck had been inclined to think this +silent observant youth, with his hands in his pockets and his shoulders +a little humped, as probably shy and adolescently ineffective. But the +head was manifestly quite busy.... + +"Miss Corner," he began, taking the first thing that came into his head, +and then he remembered that he had already made the remark he was going +to make not five minutes ago. + +"What form of art," he asked, "are you contemplating in your studies at +the present time in London?".... + +Before this question could be dealt with at all adequately, the two +small boys became active in the garden beating in everybody to +"dress-up" before supper. The secretary, Teddy, came in a fatherly way +to look after Mr. Direck and see to his draperies. + + +Section 9 + +Mr. Direck gave his very best attention to this business of draping +himself, for he had not the slightest intention of appearing ridiculous +in the eyes of Miss Corner. Teddy came with an armful of stuff that he +thought "might do." + +"What'll I come as?" asked Mr. Direck. + +"We don't wear costumes," said Teddy. "We just put on all the brightest +things we fancy. If it's any costume at all, it's Futurist." + +"And surely why shouldn't one?" asked Mr. Direck, greatly struck by this +idea. "Why should we always be tied by the fashions and periods of the +past?" + +He rejected a rather Mephistopheles-like costume of crimson and a scheme +for a brigand-like ensemble based upon what was evidently an old bolero +of Mrs. Britling's, and after some reflection he accepted some black +silk tights. His legs were not legs to be ashamed of. Over this he tried +various brilliant wrappings from the Dower House _armoire_, and chose at +last, after some hesitation in the direction of a piece of gold and +purple brocade, a big square of green silk curtain stuff adorned with +golden pheasants and other large and dignified ornaments; this he wore +toga fashion over his light silken under-vest--Teddy had insisted on the +abandonment of his shirt "if you want to dance at all"--and fastened +with a large green glass-jewelled brooch. From this his head and neck +projected, he felt, with a tolerable dignity. Teddy suggested a fillet +of green ribbon, and this Mr. Direck tried, but after prolonged +reflection before the glass rejected. He was still weighing the effect +of this fillet upon the mind of Miss Corner when Teddy left him to make +his own modest preparations. Teddy's departure gave him a chance for +profile studies by means of an arrangement of the long mirror and the +table looking-glass that he had been too shy to attempt in the presence +of the secretary. The general effect was quite satisfactory. + +"Wa-a-a-l," he said with a quaver of laughter, "now who'd have thought +it?" and smiled a consciously American smile at himself before going +down. + +The company was assembling in the panelled hall, and made a brilliant +show in the light of the acetylene candles against the dark background. +Mr. Britling in a black velvet cloak and black silk tights was a deeper +shade among the shadows; the high lights were Miss Corner and her +sister, in glittering garments of peacock green and silver that gave a +snake-like quality to their lithe bodies. They were talking to the +German tutor, who had become a sort of cotton Cossack, a spectacled +Cossack in buff and bright green. Mrs. Britling was dignified and +beautiful in a purple djibbah, and her stepson had become a handsome +still figure of black and crimson. Teddy had contrived something +elaborate and effective in the Egyptian style, with a fish-basket and a +cuirass of that thin matting one finds behind washstands; the small boys +were brigands, with immensely baggy breeches and cummerbunds in which +they had stuck a selection of paper-knives and toy pistols and similar +weapons. Mr. Carmine and his young man had come provided with real +Indian costumes; the feeling of the company was that Mr. Carmine was a +mullah. The aunt-like lady with the noble nose stood out amidst these +levities in a black silk costume with a gold chain. She refused, it +seemed, to make herself absurd, though she encouraged the others to +extravagance by nods and enigmatical smiles. Nevertheless she had put +pink ribbons in her cap. A family of father, golden-haired mother, and +two young daughters, sympathetically attired, had just arrived, and were +discarding their outer wrappings with the assistance of host and +hostess. + +It was all just exactly what Mr. Direck had never expected in England, +and equally unexpected was the supper on a long candle-lit table without +a cloth. No servants were present, but on a sideboard stood a cold +salmon and cold joints and kalter aufschnitt and kartoffel salat, and a +variety of other comestibles, and many bottles of beer and wine and +whisky. One helped oneself and anybody else one could, and Mr. Direck +did his best to be very attentive to Mrs. Britling and Miss Corner, and +was greatly assisted by the latter. + +Everybody seemed unusually gay and bright-eyed. Mr. Direck found +something exhilarating and oddly exciting in all this unusual bright +costume and in this easy mutual service; it made everybody seem franker +and simpler. Even Mr. Britling had revealed a sturdy handsomeness that +had not been apparent to Mr. Direck before, and young Britling left no +doubts now about his good looks. Mr. Direck forgot his mission and his +position, and indeed things generally, in an irrational satisfaction +that his golden pheasants harmonised with the glitter of the warm and +smiling girl beside him. And he sat down beside her--"You sit anywhere," +said Mrs. Britling--with far less compunction than in his ordinary +costume he would have felt for so direct a confession of preference. And +there was something in her eyes, it was quite indefinable and yet very +satisfying, that told him that now he escaped from the stern square +imperatives of his patriotic tailor in New York she had made a +discovery of him. + +Everybody chattered gaily, though Mr. Direck would have found it +difficult to recall afterwards what it was they chattered about, except +that somehow he acquired the valuable knowledge that Miss Corner was +called Cecily, and her sister Letty, and then--so far old Essex custom +held--the masculine section was left for a few minutes for some +imaginary drinking, and a lighting of cigars and cigarettes, after which +everybody went through interwoven moonlight and afterglow to the barn. +Mr. Britling sat down to a pianola in the corner and began the familiar +cadences of "Whistling Rufus." + +"You dance?" said Miss Cecily Corner. + +"I've never been much of a dancing man," said Mr. Direck. "What sort of +dance is this?" + +"Just anything. A two-step." + +Mr. Direck hesitated and regretted a well-spent youth, and then Hugh +came prancing forward with outstretched hands and swept her away. + +Just for an instant Mr. Direck felt that this young man was a trifle +superfluous.... + +But it was very amusing dancing. + +It wasn't any sort of taught formal dancing. It was a spontaneous retort +to the leaping American music that Mr. Britling footed out. You kept +time, and for the rest you did as your nature prompted. If you had a +partner you joined hands, you fluttered to and from one another, you +paced down the long floor together, you involved yourselves in romantic +pursuits and repulsions with other couples. There was no objection to +your dancing alone. Teddy, for example, danced alone in order to develop +certain Egyptian gestures that were germinating in his brain. There was +no objection to your joining hands in a cheerful serpent.... + +Mr. Direck hung on to Cissie and her partner. They danced very well +together; they seemed to like and understand each other. It was natural +of course for two young people like that, thrown very much together, to +develop an affection for one another.... Still, she was older by three +or four years. + +It seemed unreasonable that the boy anyhow shouldn't be in love with +her.... + +It seemed unreasonable that any one shouldn't be in love with her.... + +Then Mr. Direck remarked that Cissie was watching Teddy's manoeuvres +over her partner's shoulder with real affection and admiration.... + +But then most refreshingly she picked up Mr. Direck's gaze and gave him +the slightest of smiles. She hadn't forgotten him. + +The music stopped with an effect of shock, and all the bobbing, whirling +figures became walking glories. + +"Now that's not difficult, is it?" said Miss Corner, glowing happily. + +"Not when you do it," said Mr. Direck. + +"I can't imagine an American not dancing a two-step. You must do the +next with me. Listen! It's 'Away Down Indiana' ... ah! I knew you +could." + +Mr. Direck, too, understood now that he could, and they went off holding +hands rather after the fashion of two skaters. + +"My word!" said Mr. Direck. "To think I'd be dancing." + +But he said no more because he needed his breath. + +He liked it, and he had another attempt with one of the visitor +daughters, who danced rather more formally, and then Teddy took the +pianola and Mr. Direck was astonished by the spectacle of an eminent +British thinker in a whirl of black velvet and extremely active black +legs engaged in a kind of Apache dance in pursuit of the visitor wife. +In which Mr. Lawrence Carmine suddenly mingled. + +"In Germany," said Herr Heinrich, "we do not dance like this. It could +not be considered seemly. But it is very pleasant." + +And then there was a waltz, and Herr Heinrich bowed to and took the +visitor wife round three times, and returned her very punctually and +exactly to the point whence he had taken her, and the Indian young +gentleman (who must not be called "coloured") waltzed very well with +Cecily. Mr. Direck tried to take a tolerant European view of this brown +and white combination. But he secured her as soon as possible from this +Asiatic entanglement, and danced with her again, and then he danced with +her again. + +"Come and look at the moonlight," cried Mrs. Britling. + +And presently Mr. Direck found himself strolling through the rose garden +with Cecily. She had the sweetest moonlight face, her white shining robe +made her a thing of moonlight altogether. If Mr. Direck had not been in +love with her before he was now altogether in love. Mamie Nelson, whose +freakish unkindness had been rankling like a poisoned thorn in his heart +all the way from Massachusetts, suddenly became Ancient History. + +A tremendous desire for eloquence arose in Mr. Direck's soul, a desire +so tremendous that no conceivable phrase he could imagine satisfied it. +So he remained tongue-tied. And Cecily was tongue-tied, too. The scent +of the roses just tinted the clear sweetness of the air they breathed. + +Mr. Direck's mood was an immense solemnity, like a dark ocean beneath +the vast dome of the sky, and something quivered in every fibre of his +being, like moonlit ripples on the sea. He felt at the same time a +portentous stillness and an immense enterprise.... + +Then suddenly the pianola, pounding a cake walk, burst out into ribald +invitation.... + +"Come back to dance!" cried Cecily, like one from whom a spell has just +been broken. And Mr. Direck, snatching at a vanishing scrap of +everything he had not said, remarked, "I shall never forget this +evening." + +She did not seem to hear that. + +They danced together again. And then Mr. Direck danced with the visitor +lady, whose name he had never heard. And then he danced with Mrs. +Britling, and then he danced with Letty. And then it seemed time for him +to look for Miss Cecily again. + +And so the cheerful evening passed until they were within a quarter of +an hour of Sunday morning. Mrs. Britling went to exert a restraining +influence upon the pianola. + +"Oh! one dance more!" cried Cissie Corner. + +"Oh! one dance more!" cried Letty. + +"One dance more," Mr. Direck supported, and then things really _had_ to +end. + +There was a rapid putting out of candles and a stowing away of things by +Teddy and the sons, two chauffeurs appeared from the region of the +kitchen and brought Mr. Lawrence Carmine's car and the visitor family's +car to the front door, and everybody drifted gaily through the moonlight +and the big trees to the front of the house. And Mr. Direck saw the +perambulator waiting--the mysterious perambulator--a little in the dark +beyond the front door. + +The visitor family and Mr. Carmine and his young Indian departed. "Come +to hockey!" shouted Mr. Britling to each departing car-load, and Mr. +Carmine receding answered: "I'll bring three!" + +Then Mr. Direck, in accordance with a habit that had been growing on him +throughout the evening, looked around for Miss Cissie Corner and failed +to find her. And then behold she was descending the staircase with the +mysterious baby in her arms. She held up a warning finger, and then +glanced at her sleeping burthen. She looked like a silvery Madonna. And +Mr. Direck remembered that he was still in doubt about that baby.... + +Teddy, who was back in his flannels, seized upon the perambulator. There +was much careful baby stowing on the part of Cecily; she displayed an +infinitely maternal solicitude. Letty was away changing; she reappeared +jauntily taking leave, disregarding the baby absolutely, and Teddy +departed bigamously, wheeling the perambulator between the two sisters +into the hazes of the moonlight. There was much crying of good nights. +Mr. Direck's curiosities narrowed down to a point of great intensity.... + +Of course, Mr. Britling's circle must be a very "Advanced" circle.... + + +Section 10 + +Mr. Direck found he had taken leave of the rest of the company, and +drifted into a little parlour with Mr. Britling and certain glasses and +siphons and a whisky decanter on a tray.... + +"It is a very curious thing," said Mr. Direck, "that in England I find +myself more disposed to take stimulants and that I no longer have the +need for iced water that one feels at home. I ascribe it to a greater +humidity in the air. One is less dried and one is less braced. One is no +longer pursued by a thirst, but one needs something to buck one up a +little. Thank you. That is enough." + +Mr. Direck took his glass of whisky and soda from Mr. Britling's hand. + +Mr. Britling seated himself in an armchair by the fireplace and threw +one leg carelessly over the arm. In his black velvet cloak and cap, and +his black silk tights, he was very like a minor character, a court +chamberlain for example, in some cloak and rapier drama. "I find this +week-end dancing and kicking about wonderfully wholesome," he said. +"That and our Sunday hockey. One starts the new week clear and bright +about the mind. Friday is always my worst working day." + +Mr. Direck leant against the table, wrapped in his golden pheasants, and +appreciated the point. + +"Your young people dance very cheerfully," he said. + +"We all dance very cheerfully," said Mr. Britling. + +"Then this Miss Corner," said Mr. Direck, "she is the sister, I presume, +is she? of that pleasant young lady who is married--she is married, +isn't she?--to the young man you call Teddy." + +"I should have explained these young people. They're the sort of young +people we are producing over here now in quite enormous quantity. They +are the sort of equivalent of the Russian Intelligentsia, an +irresponsible middle class with ideas. Teddy, you know, is my secretary. +He's the son, I believe, of a Kilburn solicitor. He was recommended to +me by Datcher of _The Times_. He came down here and lived in lodgings +for a time. Then suddenly appeared the young lady." + +"Miss Corner's sister?" + +"Exactly. The village was a little startled. The cottager who had let +the rooms came to me privately. Teddy is rather touchy on the point of +his personal independence, he considers any demand for explanations as +an insult, and probably all he had said to the old lady was, 'This is +Letty--come to share my rooms.' I put the matter to him very gently. +'Oh, yes,' he said, rather in the manner of some one who has overlooked +a trifle. 'I got married to her in the Christmas holidays. May I bring +her along to see Mrs. Britling?' We induced him to go into a little +cottage I rent. The wife was the daughter of a Colchester journalist and +printer. I don't know if you talked to her." + +"I've talked to the sister rather." + +"Well, they're both idea'd. They're highly educated in the sense that +they do really think for themselves. Almost fiercely. So does Teddy. If +he thinks he hasn't thought anything he thinks for himself, he goes off +and thinks it different. The sister is a teacher who wants to take the +B.A. degree in London University. Meanwhile she pays the penalty of her +sex." + +"Meaning--?" asked Mr. Direck, startled. + +"Oh! that she puts in a great deal too much of her time upon housework +and minding her sister's baby." + +"She's a very interesting and charming young lady indeed," said Mr. +Direck. "With a sort of Western college freedom of mind--and something +about her that isn't American at all." + +Mr. Britling was following the train of his own thoughts. + +"My household has some amusing contrasts," he said. "I don't know if you +have talked to that German. + +"He's always asking questions. And you tell him any old thing and he +goes and writes it down in his room upstairs, and afterwards asks you +another like it in order to perplex himself by the variety of your +answers. He regards the whole world with a methodical distrust. He wants +to document it and pin it down. He suspects it only too justly of +disorderly impulses, and a capacity for self-contradiction. He is the +most extraordinary contrast to Teddy, whose confidence in the universe +amounts almost to effrontery. Teddy carries our national laxness to a +foolhardy extent. He is capable of leaving his watch in the middle of +Claverings Park and expecting to find it a month later--being carefully +taken care of by a squirrel, I suppose--when he happens to want it. He's +rather like a squirrel himself--without the habit of hoarding. He is +incapable of asking a question about anything; he would be quite sure it +was all right anyhow. He would feel that asking questions betrayed a +want of confidence--was a sort of incivility. But my German, if you +notice,--his normal expression is one of grave solicitude. He is like a +conscientious ticket-collector among his impressions. And did you notice +how beautifully my pianola rolls are all numbered and catalogued? He did +that. He set to work and did it as soon as he got here, just as a good +cat when you bring it into the house sets to work and catches mice. +Previously the pianola music was chaos. You took what God sent you. + +"And he _looks_ like a German," said Mr. Britling. + +"He certainly does that," said Mr. Direck. + +"He has the fair type of complexion, the rather full habit of body, the +temperamental disposition, but in addition that close-cropped head, it +is almost as if it were shaved, the plumpness, the glasses--those are +things that are made. And the way he carries himself. And the way he +thinks. His meticulousness. When he arrived he was delightful, he was +wearing a student's corps cap and a rucksack, he carried a violin; he +seemed to have come out of a book. No one would ever dare to invent so +German a German for a book. Now, a young Frenchman or a young Italian or +a young Russian coming here might look like a foreigner, but he wouldn't +have the distinctive national stamp a German has. He wouldn't be plainly +French or Italian or Russian. Other peoples are not made; they are +neither made nor created but proceeding--out of a thousand indefinable +causes. The Germans are a triumph of directive will. I had to remark the +other day that when my boys talked German they shouted. 'But when one +talks German one _must_ shout,' said Herr Heinrich. 'It is taught so in +the schools.' And it is. They teach them to shout and to throw out their +chests. Just as they teach them to read notice-boards and not think +about politics. Their very ribs are not their own. My Herr Heinrich is +comparatively a liberal thinker. He asked me the other day, 'But why +should I give myself up to philology? But then,' he reflected, 'it is +what I have to do.'" + +Mr. Britling seemed to have finished, and then just as Mr. Direck was +planning a way of getting the talk back by way of Teddy to Miss Corner, +he snuggled more deeply into his chair, reflected and broke out again. + +"This contrast between Heinrich's carefulness and Teddy's +easy-goingness, come to look at it, is I suppose one of the most +fundamental in the world. It reaches to everything. It mixes up with +education, statecraft, morals. Will you make or will you take? Those are +the two extreme courses in all such things. I suppose the answer of +wisdom to that is, like all wise answers, a compromise. I suppose one +must accept and then make all one can of it.... Have you talked at all +to my eldest son?" + +"He's a very interesting young man indeed," said Mr. Direck. "I should +venture to say there's a very great deal in him. I was most impressed by +the few words I had with him." + +"There, for example, is one of my perplexities," said Mr. Britling. + +Mr. Direck waited for some further light on this sudden transition. + +"Ah! your troubles in life haven't begun yet. Wait till you're a father. +That cuts to the bone. You have the most delicate thing in the world in +hand, a young kindred mind. You feel responsible for it, you know you +are responsible for it; and you lose touch with it. You can't get at it. +Nowadays we've lost the old tradition of fatherhood by divine right--and +we haven't got a new one. I've tried not to be a cramping ruler, a +director, a domestic tyrant to that lad--and in effect it's meant his +going his own way.... I don't dominate. I hoped to advise. But you see +he loves my respect and good opinion. Too much. When things go well I +know of them. When the world goes dark for him, then he keeps his +trouble from me. Just when I would so eagerly go into it with him.... +There's something the matter now, something--it may be grave. I feel he +wants to tell me. And there it is!--it seems I am the last person to +whom he can humiliate himself by a confession of blundering, or +weakness.... Something I should just laugh at and say, 'That's in the +blood of all of us, dear Spit of myself. Let's see what's to be +done.'..." + +He paused and then went on, finding in the unfamiliarity and +transitoriness of his visitor a freedom he might have failed to find in +a close friend. + +"I am frightened at times at all I don't know about in that boy's mind. +I know nothing of his religiosities. He's my son and he must have +religiosities. I know nothing of his ideas or of his knowledge about sex +and all that side of life. I do not know of the things he finds +beautiful. I can guess at times; that's all; when he betrays himself.... +You see, you don't know really what love is until you have children. One +doesn't love women. Indeed you don't! One gives and gets; it's a trade. +One may have tremendous excitements and expectations and overwhelming +desires. That's all very well in its way. But the love of children is an +exquisite tenderness: it rends the heart. It's a thing of God. And I lie +awake at nights and stretch out my hands in the darkness to this +lad--who will never know--until his sons come in their time...." + +He made one of his quick turns again. + +"And that's where our English way makes for distresses. Mr. Prussian +respects and fears his father; respects authorities, attends, obeys +and--_his father has a hold upon him_. But I said to myself at the +outset, 'No, whatever happens, I will not usurp the place of God. I will +not be the Priest-Patriarch of my children. They shall grow and I will +grow beside them, helping but not cramping or overshadowing.' They grow +more. But they blunder more. Life ceases to be a discipline and becomes +an experiment...." + +"That's very true," said Mr. Direck, to whom it seemed the time was ripe +to say something. "This is the problem of America perhaps even more than +of England. Though I have not had the parental experience you have +undergone.... I can see very clearly that a son is a very serious +proposition." + +"The old system of life was organisation. That is where Germany is still +the most ancient of European states. It's a reversion to a tribal cult. +It's atavistic.... To organise or discipline, or mould characters or +press authority, is to assume that you have reached finality in your +general philosophy. It implies an assured end. Heinrich has his assured +end, his philological professorship or thereabouts as a part of the +Germanic machine. And that too has its assured end in German national +assertion. Here, we have none of those convictions. We know we haven't +finality, and so we are open and apologetic and receptive, rather than +wilful.... You see all organisation, with its implication of finality, +is death. We feel that. The Germans don't. What you organise you kill. +Organised morals or organised religion or organised thought are dead +morals and dead religion and dead thought. Yet some organisation you +must have. Organisation is like killing cattle. If you do not kill some +the herd is just waste. But you musn't kill all or you kill the herd. +The unkilled cattle are the herd, the continuation; the unorganised side +of life is the real life. The reality of life is adventure, not +performance. What isn't adventure isn't life. What can be ruled about +can be machined. But priests and schoolmasters and bureaucrats get hold +of life and try to make it _all_ rules, _all_ etiquette and regulation +and correctitude.... And parents and the love of parents make for the +same thing. It is all very well to experiment for oneself, but when one +sees these dear things of one's own, so young and inexperienced and so +capable of every sort of gallant foolishness, walking along the narrow +plank, going down into dark jungles, ah! then it makes one want to wrap +them in laws and foresight and fence them about with 'Verboten' boards +in all the conceivable aspects...." + +"In America of course we do set a certain store upon youthful +self-reliance," said Mr. Direck. + +"As we do here. It's in your blood and our blood. It's the instinct of +the English and the Irish anyhow to suspect government and take the +risks of the chancy way.... And manifestly the Russians, if you read +their novelists, have the same twist in them.... When we get this young +Prussian here, he's a marvel to us. He really believes in Law. He +_likes_ to obey. That seems a sort of joke to us. It's curious how +foreign these Germans are--to all the rest of the world. Because of +their docility. Scratch the Russian and you get the Tartar. Educate the +Russian or the American or the Englishman or the Irishman or Frenchman +or any real northern European except the German, and you get the +Anarchist, that is to say the man who dreams of order without +organisation--of something beyond organisation.... + +"It's one o'clock," said Mr. Britling abruptly, perceiving a shade of +fatigue upon the face of his hearer and realising that his thoughts had +taken him too far, "and Sunday. Let's go to bed." + + +Section 11 + +For a time Mr. Direck could not sleep. His mind had been too excited by +this incessant day with all its novelties and all its provocations to +comparison. The whole complicated spectacle grouped itself, with a +naturalness and a complete want of logic that all who have been young +will understand, about Cecily Corner. + +She had to be in the picture, and so she came in as though she were the +central figure, as though she were the quintessential England. There she +was, the type, the blood, the likeness, of no end of Massachusetts +families, the very same stuff indeed, and yet she was different.... + +For a time his thoughts hovered ineffectively about certain details of +her ear and cheek, and one may doubt if his interest in these things was +entirely international.... + +Then he found himself under way with an exposition of certain points to +Mr. Britling. In the security of his bed he could imagine that he was +talking very slowly and carefully while Mr. Britling listened; already +he was more than half way to dreamland or he could not have supposed +anything so incredible. + +"There's a curious sort of difference," he was saying. "It is difficult +to define, but on the whole I might express it by saying that such a +gathering as this if it was in America would be drawn with harder lines, +would show its bones more and have everything more emphatic. And just to +take one illustrative point: in America in such a gathering as this +there would be bound to be several jokes going on as it were, running +jokes and running criticisms, from day to day and from week to week.... +There would be jokes about your writing and your influence and jokes +about Miss Corner's advanced reading.... You see, in America we pay much +more attention to personal character. Here people, I notice, are not +talked to about their personal characters at all, and many of them do +not seem to be aware and do not seem to mind what personal characters +they have.... + +"And another thing I find noteworthy is the way in which what I might +call mature people seem to go on having a good time instead of standing +by and applauding the young people having a good time.... And the young +people do not seem to have set out to have a good time at all.... Now in +America, a charming girl like Miss Corner would be distinctly more aware +of herself and her vitality than she is here, distinctly more. Her +peculiarly charming sidelong look, if I might make so free with +her--would have been called attention to. It's a perfectly beautiful +look, the sort of look some great artist would have loved to make +immortal. It's a look I shall find it hard to forget.... But she doesn't +seem to be aware in the least of it. In America she would be aware of +it. She would be distinctly aware of it. She would have been _made_ +aware of it. She would have been advised of it. It would be looked for +and she would know it was looked for. She would _give_ it as a singer +gives her most popular song. Mamie Nelson, for example, used to give a +peculiar little throw back of the chin and a laugh.... It was talked +about. People came to see it.... + +"Of course Mamie Nelson was a very brilliant girl indeed. I suppose in +England you would say we spoilt her. I suppose we did spoil her...." + +It came into Mr. Direck's head that for a whole day he had scarcely +given a thought to Mamie Nelson. And now he was thinking of her--calmly. +Why shouldn't one think of Mamie Nelson calmly? + +She was a proud imperious thing. There was something Southern in her. +Very dark blue eyes she had, much darker than Miss Corner's.... + +But how tortuous she had been behind that outward pride of hers! For +four years she had let him think he was the only man who really mattered +in the world, and all the time quite clearly and definitely she had +deceived him. She had made a fool of him and she had made a fool of the +others perhaps--just to have her retinue and play the queen in her +world. And at last humiliation, bitter humiliation, and Mamie with her +chin in the air and her bright triumphant smile looking down on him. + +Hadn't he, she asked, had the privilege of loving her? + +She took herself at the value they had set upon her. + +Well--somehow--that wasn't right.... + +All the way across the Atlantic Mr. Direck had been trying to forget her +downward glance with the chin up, during that last encounter--and other +aspects of the same humiliation. The years he had spent upon her! The +time! Always relying upon her assurance of a special preference for him. +He tried to think he was suffering from the pangs of unrequited love, +and to conceal from himself just how bitterly his pride and vanity had +been rent by her ultimate rejection. There had been a time when she had +given him reason to laugh in his sleeve at Booth Wilmington. + +Perhaps Booth Wilmington had also had reason for laughing in his +sleeve.... + +Had she even loved Booth Wilmington? Or had she just snatched at him?... + +Wasn't he, Direck, as good a man as Booth Wilmington anyhow?... + +For some moments the old sting of jealousy rankled again. He recalled +the flaring rivalry that had ended in his defeat, the competition of +gifts and treats.... A thing so open that all Carrierville knew of it, +discussed it, took sides.... And over it all Mamie with her flashing +smile had sailed like a processional goddess.... + +Why, they had made jokes about him in the newspapers! + +One couldn't imagine such a contest in Matching's Easy. Yet surely even +in Matching's Easy there are lovers. + +Is it something in the air, something in the climate that makes things +harder and clearer in America?... + +Cissie--why shouldn't one call her Cissie in one's private thoughts +anyhow?--would never be as hard and clear as Mamie. She had English +eyes--merciful eyes.... + +That was the word--_merciful_! + +The English light, the English air, are merciful.... + +Merciful.... + +They tolerate old things and slow things and imperfect apprehensions. +They aren't always getting at you.... + +They don't laugh at you.... At least--they laugh differently.... + +Was England the tolerant country? With its kind eyes and its wary +sidelong look. Toleration. In which everything mellowed and nothing was +destroyed. A soft country. A country with a passion for imperfection. A +padded country.... + +England--all stuffed with soft feathers ... under one's ear. A +pillow--with soft, kind Corners ... Beautiful rounded Corners.... Dear, +dear Corners. Cissie Corners. Corners. Could there be a better family? + +Massachusetts--but in heaven.... + +Harps playing two-steps, and kind angels wrapped in moonlight. + + Very softly I and you, + One turn, two turn, three turn, too. + Off we go!.... + + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD + +THE ENTERTAINMENT OF MR. DIRECK REACHES A CLIMAX + + +Section 1 + +Breakfast was in the open air, and a sunny, easy-going feast. Then the +small boys laid hands on Mr. Direck and showed him the pond and the +boats, while Mr. Britling strolled about the lawn with Hugh, talking +rather intently. And when Mr. Direck returned from the boats in a state +of greatly enhanced popularity he found Mr. Britling conversing over his +garden railings to what was altogether a new type of Britisher in Mr. +Direck's experience. It was a tall, lean, sun-bitten youngish man of +forty perhaps, in brown tweeds, looking more like the Englishman of the +American illustrations than anything Mr. Direck had met hitherto. Indeed +he came very near to a complete realisation of that ideal except that +there was a sort of intensity about him, and that his clipped moustache +had the restrained stiffness of a wiry-haired terrier. This gentleman +Mr. Direck learnt was Colonel Rendezvous. He spoke in clear short +sentences, they had an effect of being punched out, and he was refusing +to come into the garden and talk. + +"Have to do my fourteen miles before lunch," he said. "You haven't seen +Manning about, have you?" + +"He isn't here," said Mr. Britling, and it seemed to Mr. Direck that +there was the faintest ambiguity in this reply. + +"Have to go alone, then," said Colonel Rendezvous. "They told me that he +had started to come here." + +"I shall motor over to Bramley High Oak for your Boy Scout festival," +said Mr. Britling. + +"Going to have three thousand of 'em," said the Colonel. "Good show." + +His steely eyes seemed to search the cover of Mr. Britling's garden for +the missing Manning, and then he decided to give him up. "I must be +going," he said. "So long. Come up!" + +A well-disciplined dog came to heel, and the lean figure had given Mr. +Direck a semi-military salutation and gone upon its way. It marched with +a long elastic stride; it never looked back. + +"Manning," said Mr. Britling, "is probably hiding up in my rose garden." + +"Curiously enough, I guessed from your manner that that might be the +case," said Mr. Direck. + +"Yes. Manning is a London journalist. He has a little cottage about a +mile over there"--Mr. Britling pointed vaguely--"and he comes down for +the week-ends. And Rendezvous has found out he isn't fit. And everybody +ought to be fit. That is the beginning and end of life for Rendezvous. +Fitness. An almost mineral quality, an insatiable activity of body, +great mental simplicity. So he takes possession of poor old Manning and +trots him for that fourteen miles--at four miles an hour. Manning goes +through all the agonies of death and damnation, he half dissolves, he +pants and drags for the first eight or ten miles, and then I must admit +he rather justifies Rendezvous' theory. He is to be found in the +afternoon in a hammock suffering from blistered feet, but otherwise +unusually well. But if he can escape it, he does. He hides." + +"But if he doesn't want to go with Rendezvous, why does he?" said Mr. +Direck. + +"Well, Rendezvous is accustomed to the command of men. And Manning's +only way of refusing things is on printed forms. Which he doesn't bring +down to Matching's Easy. Ah! behold!" + +Far away across the lawn between two blue cedars there appeared a +leisurely form in grey flannels and a loose tie, advancing with manifest +circumspection. + +"He's gone," cried Britling. + +The leisurely form, obviously amiable, obviously a little out of +condition, became more confident, drew nearer. + +"I'm sorry to have missed him," he said cheerfully. "I thought he might +come this way. It's going to be a very warm day indeed. Let us sit about +somewhere and talk. + +"Of course," he said, turning to Direck, "Rendezvous is the life and +soul of the country." + +They strolled towards a place of seats and hammocks between the big +trees and the rose garden, and the talk turned for a time upon +Rendezvous. "They have the tidiest garden in Essex," said Manning. "It's +not Mrs. Rendezvous' fault that it is so. Mrs. Rendezvous, as a matter +of fact, has a taste for the picturesque. She just puts the things about +in groups in the beds. She wants them, she says, to grow anyhow. She +desires a romantic disorder. But she never gets it. When he walks down +the path all the plants dress instinctively.... And there's a tree near +their gate; it used to be a willow. You can ask any old man in the +village. But ever since Rendezvous took the place it's been trying to +present arms. With the most extraordinary results. I was passing the +other day with old Windershin. 'You see that there old poplar,' he said. +'It's a willow,' said I. 'No,' he said, 'it did used to be a willow +before Colonel Rendezvous he came. But now it's a poplar.'... And, by +Jove, it is a poplar!"... + +The conversation thus opened by Manning centred for a time upon Colonel +Rendezvous. He was presented as a monster of energy and self-discipline; +as the determined foe of every form of looseness, slackness, and +easy-goingness. + +"He's done wonderful work for the local Boy Scout movement," said +Manning. + +"It's Kitchenerism," said Britling. + +"It's the army side of the efficiency stunt," said Manning. + +There followed a digression upon the Boy Scout movement, and Mr. Direck +made comparisons with the propaganda of Seton Thompson in America. +"Colonel Teddyism," said Manning. "It's a sort of reaction against +everything being too easy and too safe." + +"It's got its anti-decadent side," said Mr. Direck. + +"If there is such a thing as decadence," said Mr. Britling. + +"If there wasn't such a thing as decadence," said Manning, "we +journalists would have had to invent it."... + +"There is something tragical in all this--what shall I call +it?--Kitchenerism," Mr. Britling reflected "Here you have it rushing +about and keeping itself--screwed up, and trying desperately to keep the +country screwed up. And all because there may be a war some day somehow +with Germany. Provided Germany _is_ insane. It's that war, like some +sort of bee in Rendezvous' brains, that is driving him along the road +now to Market Saffron--he always keeps to the roads because they are +severer--through all the dust and sunshine. When he might be here +gossiping.... + +"And you know, I don't see that war coming," said Mr. Britling. "I +believe Rendezvous sweats in vain. I can't believe in that war. It has +held off for forty years. It may hold off forever." + +He nodded his head towards the German tutor, who had come into view +across the lawn, talking profoundly with Mr. Britling's eldest son. + +"Look at that pleasant person. There he is--_Echt Deutsch_--if anything +ever was. Look at my son there! Do you see the two of them engaged in +mortal combat? The thing's too ridiculous. The world grows sane. They +may fight in the Balkans still; in many ways the Balkan States are in +the very rear of civilisation; but to imagine decent countries like this +or Germany going back to bloodshed! No.... When I see Rendezvous +keeping it up and keeping it up, I begin to see just how poor Germany +must be keeping it up. I begin to realise how sick Germany must be +getting of the high road and the dust and heat and the everlasting drill +and restraint.... My heart goes out to the South Germans. Old Manning +here always reminds me of Austria. Think of Germany coming like +Rendezvous on a Sunday morning, and looking stiffly over Austria's +fence. 'Come for a good hard walk, man. Keep Fit....'" + +"But suppose this Balkan trouble becomes acute," said Manning. + +"It hasn't; it won't. Even if it did we should keep out of it." + +"But suppose Russia grappled Austria and Germany flung herself suddenly +upon France--perhaps taking Belgium on the way." + +"Oh!--we should fight. Of course we should fight. Could any one but a +congenital idiot suppose we shouldn't fight? They know we should fight. +They aren't altogether idiots in Germany. But the thing's absurd. Why +_should_ Germany attack France? It's as if Manning here took a hatchet +suddenly and assailed Edith.... It's just the dream of their military +journalists. It's such schoolboy nonsense. Isn't that a beautiful pillar +rose? Edith only put it in last year.... I hate all this talk of wars +and rumours of wars.... It's worried all my life. And it gets worse and +it gets emptier every year...." + + +Section 2 + +Now just at that moment there was a loud report.... + +But neither Mr. Britling nor Mr. Manning nor Mr. Direck was interrupted +or incommoded in the slightest degree by that report. Because it was too +far off over the curve of this round world to be either heard or seen at +Matching's Easy. Nevertheless it was a very loud report. It occurred at +an open space by a river that ran through a cramped Oriental city, a +city spiked with white minarets and girt about by bare hills under a +blazing afternoon sky. It came from a black parcel that the Archduke +Francis Ferdinand of Austria, with great presence of mind, had just +flung out from the open hood of his automobile, where, tossed from the +side of the quay, it had descended a few seconds before. It exploded as +it touched the cobbled road just under the front of the second vehicle +in the procession, and it blew to pieces the front of the automobile and +injured the aide-de-camp who was in it and several of the spectators. +Its thrower was immediately gripped by the bystanders. The procession +stopped. There was a tremendous commotion amongst that brightly-costumed +crowd, a hot excitement in vivid contrast to the Sabbath calm of +Matching's Easy.... + +Mr. Britling, to whom the explosion was altogether inaudible, continued +his dissertation upon the common-sense of the world and the practical +security of our Western peace. + + +Section 3 + +Lunch was an open-air feast again. Three visitors had dropped in; they +had motored down from London piled up on a motor-cycle and a side-car; a +brother and two sisters they seemed to be, and they had apparently +reduced hilariousness to a principle. The rumours of coming hockey that +had been floating on the outskirts of Mr. Direck's consciousness ever +since his arrival, thickened and multiplied.... It crept into his mind +that he was expected to play.... + +He decided he would not play. He took various people into his +confidence. He told Mr. Britling, and Mr. Britling said, "We'll make you +full back, where you'll get a hit now and then and not have very much to +do. All you have to remember is to hit with the flat side of your stick +and not raise it above your shoulders." He told Teddy, and Teddy said, +"I strongly advise you to dress as thinly as you can consistently with +decency, and put your collar and tie in your pocket before the game +begins. Hockey is properly a winter game." He told the maiden aunt-like +lady with the prominent nose, and she said almost enviously, "Every one +here is asked to play except me. I assuage the perambulator. I suppose +one mustn't be envious. I don't see why I shouldn't play. I'm not so old +as all that." He told Hugh, and Hugh warned him to be careful not to get +hold of one of the sprung sticks. He considered whether it wouldn't be +wiser to go to his own room and lock himself in, or stroll off for a +walk through Claverings Park. But then he would miss Miss Corner, who +was certain, it seemed, to come up for hockey. On the other hand, if he +did not miss her he might make himself ridiculous in her eyes, and +efface the effect of the green silk stuff with the golden pheasants. + +He determined to stay behind until she arrived, and explain to her that +he was not going to play. He didn't somehow want her to think he wasn't +perfectly fit to play. + +Mr. Carmine arrived in an automobile with two Indians and a gentleman +who had been a prospector in Alaska, the family who had danced overnight +at the Dower House reappeared, and then Mrs. Teddy, very detached with a +special hockey stick, and Miss Corner wheeling the perambulator. Then +came further arrivals. At the earliest opportunity Mr. Direck secured +the attention of Miss Corner, and lost his interest in any one else. + +"I can't play this hockey," said Mr. Direck. "I feel strange about it. +It isn't an American game. Now if it were baseball--!" + +He left her to suppose him uncommonly hot stuff at baseball. + +"If you're on my side," said Cecily, "mind you pass to me." + +It became evident to Mr. Direck that he was going to play this hockey +after all. + +"Well," he said, "if I've got to play hockey, I guess I've got to play +hockey. But can't I just get a bit of practice somewhere before the game +begins?" + +So Miss Corner went off to get two sticks and a ball and came back to +instruct Mr. Direck. She said he had a good eye. The two small boys +scenting play in the air got sticks and joined them. The overnight +visitor's wife appeared from the house in abbreviated skirts, and +wearing formidable shin-guards. With her abundant fair hair, which was +already breaking loose, so to speak, to join the fray, she looked like a +short stout dismounted Valkyr. Her gaze was clear and firm. + + +Section 4 + +Hockey as it was played at the Dower House at Matching's Easy before the +war, was a game combining danger, physical exercise and kindliness in a +very high degree. Except for the infant in the perambulator and the +outwardly calm but inwardly resentful aunt, who wheeled the child up and +down in a position of maximum danger just behind the unnetted goal, +every one was involved. Quite able-bodied people acquainted with the +game played forward, the less well-informed played a defensive game +behind the forward line, elderly, infirm, and bulky persons were used +chiefly as obstacles in goal. Several players wore padded leg-guards, +and all players were assumed to have them and expected to behave +accordingly. + +Proceedings began with an invidious ceremony called picking up. This was +heralded by Mr. Britling, clad in the diaphanous flannels and bearing a +hockey stick, advancing with loud shouts to the centre of the hockey +field. "Pick up! Pick up!" echoed the young Britlings. + +Mr. Direck became aware of a tall, drooping man with long hair and long +digressive legs in still longer white flannel trousers, and a face that +was somehow familiar. He was talking with affectionate intimacy to +Manning, and suddenly Mr. Direck remembered that it was in Manning's +weekly paper, _The Sectarian_, in which a bitter caricaturist enlivened +a biting text, that he had become familiar with the features of +Manning's companion. It was Raeburn, Raeburn the insidious, Raeburn the +completest product of the party system.... Well, that was the English +way. "Come for the pick up!" cried the youngest Britling, seizing upon +Mr. Direck's elbow. It appeared that Mr. Britling and the overnight +dinner guest--Mr. Direck never learnt his name--were picking up. + +Names were shouted. "I'll take Cecily!" Mr. Direck heard Mr. Britling +say quite early. The opposing sides as they were picked fell into two +groups. There seemed to be difficulties about some of the names. Mr. +Britling, pointing to the more powerful looking of the Indian gentlemen, +said, "_You_, Sir." + +"I'm going to speculate on Mr. Dinks," said Mr. Britling's opponent. + +Mr. Direck gathered that Mr. Dinks was to be his hockey name. + +"You're on _our_ side," said Mrs. Teddy. "I think you'll have to play +forward, outer right, and keep a sharp eye on Cissie." + +"I'll do what I can," said Mr. Direck. + +His captain presently confirmed this appointment. + +His stick was really a sort of club and the ball was a firm hard cricket +ball.... He resolved to be very gentle with Cecily, and see that she +didn't get hurt. + +The sides took their places for the game, and a kind of order became +apparent to Mr. Direck. In the centre stood Mr. Britling and the +opposing captain, and the ball lay between them. They were preparing to +"bully off" and start the game. In a line with each of them were four +other forwards. They all looked spirited and intent young people, and +Mr. Direck wished he had had more exercise to justify his own alert +appearance. Behind each centre forward hovered one of the Britling boys. +Then on each side came a vaguer row of three backs, persons of gentler +disposition or maturer years. They included Mr. Raeburn, who was +considered to have great natural abilities for hockey but little +experience. Mr. Raeburn was behind Mr. Direck. Mrs. Britling was the +centre back. Then in a corner of Mr. Direck's side was a small girl of +six or seven, and in the half-circle about the goal a lady in a motoring +dust coat and a very short little man whom Mr. Direck had not previously +remarked. Mr. Lawrence Carmine, stripped to the braces, which were +richly ornamented with Oriental embroidery, kept goal for our team. + +The centre forwards went through a rapid little ceremony. They smote +their sticks on the ground, and then hit the sticks together. "One," +said Mr. Britling. The operation was repeated. "Two," ... "Three." + +Smack, Mr. Britling had got it and the ball had gone to the shorter and +sturdier of the younger Britlings, who had been standing behind Mr. +Direck's captain. Crack, and it was away to Teddy; smack, and it was +coming right at Direck. + +"Lordy!" he said, and prepared to smite it. + +Then something swift and blue had flashed before him, intercepted the +ball and shot it past him. This was Cecily Corner, and she and Teddy +were running abreast like the wind towards Mr. Raeburn. + +"Hey!" cried Mr. Raeburn, "stop!" and advanced, as it seemed to Mr. +Direck, with unseemly and threatening gestures towards Cissie. + +But before Mr. Direck could adjust his mind to this new phase of +affairs, Cecily had passed the right honourable gentleman with the same +mysterious ease with which she had flashed by Mr. Direck, and was +bearing down upon the miscellaneous Landwehr which formed the "backs" of +Mr. Direck's side. + +"_You_ rabbit!" cried Mr. Raeburn, and became extraordinarily active in +pursuit, administering great lengths of arm and leg with a centralised +efficiency he had not hitherto displayed. + +Running hard to the help of Mr. Raeburn was the youngest Britling boy, a +beautiful contrast. It was like a puff ball supporting and assisting a +conger eel. In front of Mr. Direck the little stout man was being alert. +Teddy was supporting the attack near the middle of the field, crying +"Centre!" while Mr. Britling, very round and resolute, was bouncing +straight towards the threatened goal. But Mrs. Teddy, running as swiftly +as her sister, was between Teddy and the ball. Whack! the little short +man's stick had clashed with Cecily's. Confused things happened with +sticks and feet, and the little short man appeared to be trying to cut +down Cecily as one cuts down a tree, she tried to pass the ball to her +centre forward--too late, and then Mrs. Teddy had intercepted it, and +was flickering back towards Mr. Britling's goal in a rush in which Mr. +Direck perceived it was his duty to join. + +Yes, he had to follow up Mrs. Teddy and pick up the ball if he had a +chance and send it in to her or the captain or across to the left +forwards, as circumstances might decide. It was perfectly clear. + +Then came his moment. The little formidably padded lady who had dined at +the Dower House overnight, made a gallant attack upon Mrs. Teddy. Out of +the confusion of this clash the ball spun into Mr. Direck's radius. +Where should he smite and how? A moment of reflection was natural. + +But now the easy-fitting discipline of the Dower House style of hockey +became apparent. Mr. Direck had last observed the tall young Indian +gentleman, full of vitality and anxious for destruction, far away in the +distance on the opposing right wing. But now, regardless of the more +formal methods of the game, this young man had resolved, without further +delay and at any cost, to hit the ball hard, and he was travelling like +some Asiatic typhoon with an extreme velocity across the remonstrances +of Mr. Britling and the general order of his side. Mr. Direck became +aware of him just before his impact. There was a sort of collision from +which Mr. Direck emerged with a feeling that one side of his face was +permanently flattened, but still gallantly resolved to hit the +comparatively lethargic ball. He and the staggered but resolute Indian +clashed sticks again. And Mr. Direck had the best of it. Years of +experience couldn't have produced a better pass to the captain.... + +"Good pass!" + +Apparently from one of the London visitors. + +But this was _some_ game! + +The ball executed some rapid movements to and fro across the field. Our +side was pressing hard. There was a violent convergence of miscellaneous +backs and suchlike irregulars upon the threatened goal. Mr. Britling's +dozen was rapidly losing its disciplined order. One of the sidecar +ladies and the gallant Indian had shifted their activities to the +defensive back, and with them was a spectacled gentleman waving his +stick, high above all recognised rules. Mr. Direck's captain and both +Britling boys hurried to join the fray. Mr. Britling, who seemed to Mr. +Direck to be for a captain rather too demagogic, also ran back to rally +his forces by loud cries. "Pass outwardly!" was the burthen of his +contribution. + +The struggle about the Britling goal ceased to be a game and became +something between a fight and a social gathering. Mr. Britling's +goal-keeper could be heard shouting, "I can't see the ball! _Lift your +feet!_" The crowded conflict lurched towards the goal posts. "My shin!" +cried Mr. Manning. "No, you _don't!_" + +Whack, but again whack! + +Whack! "Ah! _would_ you?" Whack. + +"Goal!" cried the side-car gentleman. + +"Goal!" cried the Britling boys.... + +Mr. Manning, as goal-keeper, went to recover the ball, but one of the +Britling boys politely anticipated him. + +The crowd became inactive, and then began to drift back to loosely +conceived positions. + +"It's no good swarming into goal like that," Mr. Britling, with a faint +asperity in his voice, explained to his followers. "We've got to keep +open and not _crowd_ each other." + +Then he went confidentially to the energetic young Indian to make some +restrictive explanation of his activities. + +Mr. Direck strolled back towards Cecily. He was very warm and a little +blown, but not, he felt, disgraced. He was winning. + +"You'll have to take your coat off," she said. + +It was a good idea. + +It had occurred to several people and the boundary line was already +dotted with hastily discarded jackets and wraps and so forth. But the +lady in the motoring dust coat was buttoning it to the chin. + +"One goal love," said the minor Britling boy. + +"We haven't begun yet, Sunny," said Cecily. + +"Sonny! That's American," said Mr. Direck. + +"No. We call him Sunny Jim," said Cecily. "They're bullying off again." + +"Sunny Jim's American too," said Mr. Direck, returning to his place.... + +The struggle was resumed. And soon it became clear that the first goal +was no earnest of the quality of the struggle. Teddy and Cecily formed a +terribly efficient combination. Against their brilliant rushes, +supported in a vehement but effective manner by the Indian to their +right and guided by loud shoutings from Mr. Britling (centre), Mr. +Direck and the side-car lady and Mr. Raeburn struggled in vain. One +swift advance was only checked by the dust cloak, its folds held the +ball until help arrived; another was countered by a tremendous swipe of +Mr. Raeburn's that sent the ball within an inch of the youngest +Britling's head and right across the field; the third resulted in a +swift pass from Cecily to the elder Britling son away on her right, and +he shot the goal neatly and swiftly through the lattice of Mr. Lawrence +Carmine's defensive movements. And after that very rapidly came another +goal for Mr. Britling's side and then another. + +Then Mr. Britling cried out that it was "Half Time," and explained to +Mr. Direck that whenever one side got to three goals they considered it +was half time and had five minutes' rest and changed sides. Everybody +was very hot and happy, except the lady in the dust cloak who was +perfectly cool. In everybody's eyes shone the light of battle, and not a +shadow disturbed the brightness of the afternoon for Mr. Direck except a +certain unspoken anxiety about Mr. Raeburn's trousers. + +You see Mr. Direck had never seen Mr. Raeburn before, and knew nothing +about his trousers. + +They appeared to be coming down. + +To begin with they had been rather loose over the feet and turned up, +and as the game progressed, fold after fold of concertina-ed flannel +gathered about his ankles. Every now and then Mr. Raeburn would seize +the opportunity of some respite from the game to turn up a fresh six +inches or so of this accumulation. Naturally Mr. Direck expected this +policy to end unhappily. He did not know that the flannel trousers of +Mr. Raeburn were like a river, that they could come down forever and +still remain inexhaustible.... + +He had visions of this scene of happy innocence being suddenly blasted +by a monstrous disaster.... + +Apart from this worry Mr. Direck was as happy as any one there! + +Perhaps these apprehensions affected his game. At any rate he did +nothing that pleased him in the second half, Cecily danced all over him +and round and about him, and in the course of ten minutes her side had +won the two remaining goals with a score of Five-One; and five goals is +"game" by the standards of Matching's Easy. + +And then with the very slightest of delays these insatiable people +picked up again. Mr. Direck slipped away and returned in a white silk +shirt, tennis trousers and a belt. This time he and Cecily were on the +same side, the Cecily-Teddy combination was broken, and he it seemed was +to take the place of the redoubtable Teddy on the left wing with her. + +This time the sides were better chosen and played a long, obstinate, +even game. One-One. One-Two. One-Three. (Half Time.) Two-Three. Three +all. Four-Three. Four all.... + +By this time Mr. Direck was beginning to master the simple strategy of +the sport. He was also beginning to master the fact that Cecily was the +quickest, nimblest, most indefatigable player on the field. He scouted +for her and passed to her. He developed tacit understandings with her. +Ideas of protecting her had gone to the four winds of Heaven. Against +them Teddy and a sidecar girl with Raeburn in support made a memorable +struggle. Teddy was as quick as a cat. "Four-Three" looked like winning, +but then Teddy and the tall Indian and Mrs. Teddy pulled square. They +almost repeated this feat and won, but Mr. Manning saved the situation +with an immense oblique hit that sent the ball to Mr. Direck. He ran +with the ball up to Raeburn and then dodged and passed to Cecily. There +was a lively struggle to the left; the ball was hit out by Mr. Raeburn +and thrown in by a young Britling; lost by the forwards and rescued by +the padded lady. Forward again! This time will do it! + +Cecily away to the left had worked round Mr. Raeburn once more. Teddy, +realising that things were serious, was tearing back to attack her. + +Mr. Direck supported with silent intentness. "Centre!" cried Mr. +Britling. "Cen-tre!" + +"Mr. Direck!" came her voice, full of confidence. (Of such moments is +the heroic life.) The ball shot behind the hurtling Teddy. Mr. Direck +stopped it with his foot, a trick he had just learnt from the eldest +Britling son. He was neither slow nor hasty. He was in the half-circle, +and the way to the goal was barred only by the dust-cloak lady and Mr. +Lawrence Carmine. He made as if to shoot to Mr. Carmine's left and then +smacked the ball, with the swiftness of a serpent's stroke, to his +right. + +He'd done it! Mr. Carmine's stick and feet were a yard away. + +Then hard on this wild triumph came a flash of horror. One can't see +everything. His eye following the ball's trajectory.... + +Directly in its line of flight was the perambulator. + +The ball missed the legs of the lady with the noble nose by a kind of +miracle, hit and glanced off the wheel of the perambulator, and went +spinning into a border of antirrhinums. + +"Good!" cried Cecily. "Splendid shot!" + +He'd shot a goal. He'd done it well. The perambulator it seemed didn't +matter. Though apparently the impact had awakened the baby. In the +margin of his consciousness was the figure of Mr. Britling remarking: +"Aunty. You really mustn't wheel the perambulator--_just_ there." + +"I thought," said the aunt, indicating the goal posts by a facial +movement, "that those two sticks would be a sort of protection.... Aah! +_Did_ they then?" + +Never mind that. + +"That's _game!_" said one of the junior Britlings to Mr. Direck with a +note of high appreciation, and the whole party, relaxing and crumpling +like a lowered flag, moved towards the house and tea. + + +Section 5 + +"We'll play some more after tea," said Cecily. "It will be cooler then." + +"My word, I'm beginning to like it," said Mr. Direck. + +"You're going to play very well," she said. + +And such is the magic of a game that Mr. Direck was humbly proud and +grateful for her praise, and trotted along by the side of this creature +who had revealed herself so swift and resolute and decisive, full to +overflowing of the mere pleasure of just trotting along by her side. And +after tea, which was a large confused affair, enlivened by wonderful and +entirely untruthful reminiscences of the afternoon by Mr. Raeburn, they +played again, with fewer inefficients and greater skill and swiftness, +and Mr. Direck did such quick and intelligent things that everybody +declared that he was a hockey player straight from heaven. The dusk, +which at last made the position of the ball too speculative for play, +came all too soon for him. He had played in six games, and he knew he +would be as stiff as a Dutch doll in the morning. But he was very, very +happy. + +The rest of the Sunday evening was essentially a sequel to the hockey. + +Mr. Direck changed again, and after using some embrocation that Mrs. +Britling recommended very strongly, came down in a black jacket and a +cheerfully ample black tie. He had a sense of physical well-being such +as he had not experienced since he came aboard the liner at New York. +The curious thing was that it was not quite the same sense of physical +well-being that one had in America. That is bright and clear and a +little dry, this was--humid. His mind quivered contentedly, like sunset +midges over a lake--it had no hard bright flashes--and his body wanted +to sit about. His sense of intimacy with Cecily increased each time he +looked at her. When she met his eyes she smiled. He'd caught her style +now, he felt; he attempted no more compliments and was frankly her +pupil at hockey and Badminton. After supper Mr. Britling renewed his +suggestion of an automobile excursion on the Monday. + +"There's nothing to take you back to London," said Mr. Britling, "and we +could just hunt about the district with the little old car and see +everything you want to see...." + +Mr. Direck did not hesitate three seconds. He thought of Gladys; he +thought of Miss Cecily Corner. + +"Well, indeed," he said, "if it isn't burthening you, if I'm not being +any sort of inconvenience here for another night, I'd be really very +glad indeed of the opportunity of going around and seeing all these +ancient places...." + + +Section 6 + +The newspapers came next morning at nine, and were full of the Sarajevo +Murders. Mr. Direck got the _Daily Chronicle_ and found quite animated +headlines for a British paper. + +"Who's this Archduke," he asked, "anyhow? And where is this Bosnia? I +thought it was a part of Turkey." + +"It's in Austria," said Teddy. + +"It's in the middle ages," said Mr. Britling. "What an odd, pertinaceous +business it seems to have been. First one bomb, then another; then +finally the man with the pistol. While we were strolling about the rose +garden. It's like something out of 'The Prisoner of Zenda.'" + +"Please," said Herr Heinrich. + +Mr. Britling assumed an attentive expression. + +"Will not this generally affect European politics?" + +"I don't know. Perhaps it will." + +"It says in the paper that Serbia has sent those bombs to Sarajevo." + +"It's like another world," said Mr. Britling, over his paper. +"Assassination as a political method. Can you imagine anything of the +sort happening nowadays west of the Adriatic? Imagine some one +assassinating the American Vice-President, and the bombs being at once +ascribed to the arsenal at Toronto!... We take our politics more sadly +in the West.... Won't you have another egg, Direck?" + +"Please! Might this not lead to a war?" + +"I don't think so. Austria may threaten Serbia, but she doesn't want to +provoke a conflict with Russia. It would be going too near the powder +magazine. But it's all an extraordinary business." + +"But if she did?" Herr Heinrich persisted. + +"She won't.... Some years ago I used to believe in the inevitable +European war," Mr. Britling explained to Mr. Direck, "but it's been +threatened so long that at last I've lost all belief in it. The Powers +wrangle and threaten. They're far too cautious and civilised to let the +guns go off. If there was going to be a war it would have happened two +years ago when the Balkan League fell upon Turkey. Or when Bulgaria +attacked Serbia...." + +Herr Heinrich reflected, and received these conclusions with an +expression of respectful edification. + +"I am naturally anxious," he said, "because I am taking tickets for my +holidays at an Esperanto Conference at Boulogne." + + +Section 7 + +"There is only one way to master such a thing as driving an automobile," +said Mr. Britling outside his front door, as he took his place in the +driver's seat, "and that is to resolve that from the first you will take +no risks. Be slow if you like. Stop and think when you are in doubt. But +do nothing rashly, permit no mistakes." + +It seemed to Mr. Direck as he took his seat beside his host that this +was admirable doctrine. + +They started out of the gates with an extreme deliberation. Indeed twice +they stopped dead in the act of turning into the road, and the engine +had to be restarted. + +"You will laugh at me," said Mr. Britling; "but I'm resolved to have no +blunders this time." + +"I don't laugh at you. It's excellent," said Mr. Direck. + +"It's the right way," said Mr. Britling. "Care--oh damn! I've stopped +the engine again. Ugh!--ah!--_so!_--Care, I was saying--and calm." + +"Don't think I want to hurry you," said Mr. Direck. "I don't...." + +They passed through the tillage at a slow, agreeable pace, tooting +loudly at every corner, and whenever a pedestrian was approached. Mr. +Direck was reminded that he had still to broach the lecture project to +Mr. Britling. So much had happened-- + +The car halted abruptly and the engine stopped. + +"I thought that confounded hen was thinking of crossing the road," said +Mr. Britling. "Instead of which she's gone through the hedge. She +certainly looked this way.... Perhaps I'm a little fussy this +morning.... I'll warm up to the work presently." + +"I'm convinced you can't be too careful," said Mr. Direck. "And this +sort of thing enables one to see the country better...." + +Beyond the village Mr. Britling seemed to gather confidence. The pace +quickened. But whenever other traffic or any indication of a side way +appeared discretion returned. Mr. Britling stalked his sign posts, +crawling towards them on the belly of the lowest gear; he drove all the +morning like a man who is flushing ambuscades. And yet accident overtook +him. For God demands more from us than mere righteousness. + +He cut through the hills to Market Saffron along a lane-road with which +he was unfamiliar. It began to go up hill. He explained to Mr. Direck +how admirably his engine would climb hills on the top gear. + +They took a curve and the hill grew steeper, and Mr. Direck opened the +throttle. + +They rounded another corner, and still more steeply the hill rose before +them. + +The engine began to make a chinking sound, and the car lost pace. And +then Mr. Britling saw a pleading little white board with the inscription +"Concealed Turning." For the moment he thought a turning might be +concealed anywhere. He threw out his clutch and clapped on his brake. +Then he repented of what he had done. But the engine, after three +Herculean throbs, ceased to work. Mr. Britling with a convulsive clutch +at his steering wheel set the electric hooter snarling, while one foot +released the clutch again and the other, on the accelerator, sought in +vain for help. Mr. Direck felt they were going back, back, in spite of +all this vocalisation. He clutched at the emergency brake. But he was +too late to avoid misfortune. With a feeling like sitting gently in +butter, the car sank down sideways and stopped with two wheels in the +ditch. + +Mr. Britling said they were in the ditch--said it with quite unnecessary +violence.... + +This time two cart horses and a retinue of five men were necessary to +restore Gladys to her self-respect.... + +After that they drove on to Market Saffron, and got there in time for +lunch, and after lunch Mr. Direck explored the church and the churchyard +and the parish register.... + +After lunch Mr. Britling became more cheerful about his driving. The +road from Market Saffron to Blandish, whence one turns off to Matching's +Easy, is the London and Norwich high road; it is an old Roman Stane +Street and very straightforward and honest in its stretches. You can see +the cross roads half a mile away, and the low hedges give you no chance +of a surprise. Everybody is cheered by such a road, and everybody drives +more confidently and quickly, and Mr. Britling particularly was +heartened by it and gradually let out Gladys from the almost excessive +restriction that had hitherto marked the day. "On a road like this +nothing can happen," said Mr. Britling. + +"Unless you broke an axle or burst a tyre," said Mr. Direck. + +"My man at Matching's Easy is most careful in his inspection," said Mr. +Britling, putting the accelerator well down and watching the speed +indicator creep from forty to forty-five. "He went over the car not a +week ago. And it's not one month old--in use that is." + +Yet something did happen. + +It was as they swept by the picturesque walls under the big old trees +that encircle Brandismead Park. It was nothing but a slight +miscalculation of distances. Ahead of them and well to the left, rode a +postman on a bicycle; towards them, with that curious effect of +implacable fury peculiar to motor cycles, came a motor cyclist. First +Mr. Britling thought that he would not pass between these two, then he +decided that he would hurry up and do so, then he reverted to his former +decision, and then it seemed to him that he was going so fast that he +must inevitably run down the postman. His instinct not to do that pulled +the car sharply across the path of the motor cyclist. "Oh, my God!" +cried Mr. Britling. "My God!" twisted his wheel over and distributed his +feet among his levers dementedly. + +He had an imperfectly formed idea of getting across right in front of +the motor cyclist, and then they were going down the brief grassy slope +between the road and the wall, straight at the wall, and still at a good +speed. The motor cyclist smacked against something and vanished from the +problem. The wall seemed to rush up at them and then--collapse. There +was a tremendous concussion. Mr. Direck gripped at his friend the +emergency brake, but had only time to touch it before his head hit +against the frame of the glass wind-screen, and a curtain fell upon +everything.... + +He opened his eyes upon a broken wall, a crumpled motor car, and an +undamaged motor cyclist in the aviator's cap and thin oilskin overalls +dear to motor cyclists. Mr. Direck stared and then, still stunned and +puzzled, tried to raise himself. He became aware of acute pain. + +"Don't move for a bit," said the motor cyclist. "Your arm and side are +rather hurt, I think...." + + +Section 8 + +In the course of the next twelve hours Mr. Direck was to make a +discovery that was less common in the days before the war than it has +been since. He discovered that even pain and injury may be vividly +interesting and gratifying. + +If any one had told him he was going to be stunned for five or six +minutes, cut about the brow and face and have a bone in his wrist put +out, and that as a consequence he would find himself pleased and +exhilarated, he would have treated the prophecy with ridicule; but here +he was lying stiffly on his back with his wrist bandaged to his side and +smiling into the darkness even more brightly than he had smiled at the +Essex landscape two days before. The fact is pain hurts or irritates, +but in itself it does not make a healthily constituted man miserable. +The expectation of pain, the certainty of injury may make one hopeless +enough, the reality rouses our resistance. Nobody wants a broken bone or +a delicate wrist, but very few people are very much depressed by getting +one. People can be much more depressed by smoking a hundred cigarettes +in three days or losing one per cent. of their capital. + +And everybody had been most delightful to Mr. Direck. + +He had had the monopoly of damage. Mr. Britling, holding on to the +steering wheel, had not even been thrown out. "Unless I'm internally +injured," he said, "I'm not hurt at all. My liver perhaps--bruised a +little...." + +Gladys had been abandoned in the ditch, and they had been very kindly +brought home by a passing automobile. Cecily had been at the Dower +House at the moment of the rueful arrival. She had seen how an American +can carry injuries. She had made sympathy and helpfulness more +delightful by expressed admiration. + +"She's a natural born nurse," said Mr. Direck, and then rather in the +tone of one who addressed a public meeting: "But this sort of thing +brings out all the good there is in a woman." + +He had been quite explicit to them and more particularly to her, when +they told him he must stay at the Dower House until his arm was cured. +He had looked the application straight into her pretty eyes. + +"If I'm to stay right here just as a consequence of that little shake +up, may be for a couple of weeks, may be three, and if you're coming to +do a bit of a talk to me ever and again, then I tell you I don't call +this a misfortune. It isn't a misfortune. It's right down sheer good +luck...." + +And now he lay as straight as a mummy, with his soul filled with +radiance of complete mental peace. After months of distress and +confusion, he'd got straight again. He was in the middle of a real good +story, bright and clean. He knew just exactly what he wanted. + +"After all," he said, "it's true. There's ideals. _She's_ an ideal. Why, +I loved her before ever I set eyes on Mamie. I loved her before I was +put into pants. That old portrait, there it was pointing my destiny.... +It's affinity.... It's natural selection.... + +"Well, I don't know what she thinks of me yet, but I do know very well +what she's _got_ to think of me. She's got to think all the world of +me--if I break every limb of my body making her do it. + +"I'd a sort of feeling it was right to go in that old automobile. + +"Say what you like, there's a Guidance...." + +He smiled confidentially at the darkness as if they shared a secret. + + + + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH + +MR. BRITLING IN SOLILOQUY + + +Section 1 + +Very different from the painful contentment of the bruised and broken +Mr. Direck was the state of mind of his unwounded host. He too was +sleepless, but sleepless without exaltation. The day had been too much +for him altogether; his head, to borrow an admirable American +expression, was "busy." + +How busy it was, a whole chapter will be needed to describe.... + +The impression Mr. Britling had made upon Mr. Direck was one of +indefatigable happiness. But there were times when Mr. Britling was +called upon to pay for his general cheerful activity in lump sums of +bitter sorrow. There were nights--and especially after seasons of +exceptional excitement and nervous activity--when the reckoning would be +presented and Mr. Britling would welter prostrate and groaning under a +stormy sky of unhappiness--active insatiable unhappiness--a beating with +rods. + +The sorrows of the sanguine temperament are brief but furious; the world +knows little of them. The world has no need to reckon with them. They +cause no suicides and few crimes. They hurry past, smiting at their +victim as they go. None the less they are misery. Mr. Britling in these +moods did not perhaps experience the grey and hopeless desolations of +the melancholic nor the red damnation of the choleric, but he saw a +world that bristled with misfortune and error, with poisonous thorns and +traps and swampy places and incurable blunderings. An almost +insupportable remorse for being Mr. Britling would pursue +him--justifying itself upon a hundred counts.... + +And for being such a Britling!... + +Why--he revived again that bitter question of a thousand and one unhappy +nights--why was he such a fool? Such a hasty fool? Why couldn't he look +before he leapt? Why did he take risks? Why was he always so ready to +act upon the supposition that all was bound to go well? (He might as +well have asked why he had quick brown eyes.) + +Why, for instance, hadn't he adhered to the resolution of the early +morning? He had begun with an extremity of caution.... + +It was a characteristic of these moods of Mr. Britling that they +produced a physical restlessness. He kept on turning over and then +turning over again, and sitting up and lying back, like a martyr on a +gridiron.... + +This was just the latest instance of a life-long trouble. Will there +ever be a sort of man whose thoughts are quick and his acts slow? Then +indeed we shall have a formidable being. Mr. Britling's thoughts were +quick and sanguine and his actions even more eager than his thoughts. +Already while he was a young man Mr. Britling had found his acts elbow +their way through the hurry of his ideas and precipitate humiliations. +Long before his reasons were marshalled, his resolutions were formed. He +had attempted a thousand remonstrances with himself; he had sought to +remedy the defects in his own character by written inscriptions in his +bedroom and memoranda inside his watch case. "Keep steady!" was one of +them. "Keep the End in View." And, "Go steadfastly, coherently, +continuously; only so can you go where you will." In distrusting all +impulse, scrutinising all imagination, he was persuaded lay his one +prospect of escape from the surprise of countless miseries. Otherwise he +danced among glass bombs and barbed wire. + +There had been a time when he could exhort himself to such fundamental +charge and go through phases of the severest discipline. Always at last +to be taken by surprise from some unexpected quarter. At last he had +ceased to hope for any triumph so radical. He had been content to +believe that in recent years age and a gathering habit of wisdom had +somewhat slowed his leaping purpose. That if he hadn't overcome he had +at least to a certain extent minimised it. But this last folly was +surely the worst. To charge through this patient world with--how much +did the car weigh? A ton certainly and perhaps more--reckless of every +risk. Not only to himself but others. At this thought, he clutched the +steering wheel again. Once more he saw the bent back of the endangered +cyclist, once more he felt rather than saw the seething approach of the +motor bicycle, and then through a long instant he drove helplessly at +the wall.... + +Hell perhaps is only one such incident, indefinitely prolonged.... + +Anything might have been there in front of him. And indeed now, out of +the dreamland to which he could not escape something had come, something +that screamed sharply.... + +"Good God!" he cried, "if I had hit a child! I might have hit a child!" +The hypothesis flashed into being with the thought, tried to escape and +was caught. It was characteristic of Mr. Britling's nocturnal +imagination that he should individualise this child quite sharply as +rather plain and slender, with reddish hair, staring eyes, and its ribs +crushed in a vivid and dreadful manner, pinned against the wall, mixed +up with some bricks, only to be extracted, oh! _horribly_. + +But this was not fair! He had hurt no child! He had merely pitched out +Mr. Direck and broken his arm.... + +It wasn't his merit that the child hadn't been there! + +The child might have been there! + +Mere luck. + +He lay staring in despair--as an involuntary God might stare at many a +thing in this amazing universe--staring at the little victim his +imagination had called into being only to destroy.... + + +Section 2 + +If he had not crushed a child other people had. Such things happened. +Vicariously at any rate he had crushed many children.... + +Why are children ever crushed? + +And suddenly all the pain and destruction and remorse of all the +accidents in the world descended upon Mr. Britling. + +No longer did he ask why am I such a fool, but why are we all such +fools? He became Man on the automobile of civilisation, crushing his +thousands daily in his headlong and yet aimless career.... + +That was a trick of Mr. Britling's mind. It had this tendency to spread +outward from himself to generalised issues. Many minds are like that +nowadays. He was not so completely individualised as people are supposed +to be individualised--in our law, in our stories, in our moral +judgments. He had a vicarious factor. He could slip from concentrated +reproaches to the liveliest remorse for himself as The Automobilist in +General, or for himself as England, or for himself as Man. From remorse +for smashing his guest and his automobile he could pass by what was for +him the most imperceptible of transitions to remorse for every accident +that has ever happened through the error of an automobilist since +automobiles began. All that long succession of blunderers became Mr. +Britling. Or rather Mr. Britling became all that vast succession of +blunderers. + +These fluctuating lapses from individuation made Mr. Britling a +perplexity to many who judged only by the old personal standards. At +times he seemed a monster of cantankerous self-righteousness, whom +nobody could please or satisfy, but indeed when he was most pitiless +about the faults of his race or nation he was really reproaching +himself, and when he seemed more egotistical and introspective and +self-centred he was really ransacking himself for a clue to that same +confusion of purposes that waste the hope and strength of humanity. And +now through the busy distresses of the night it would have perplexed a +watching angel to have drawn the line and shown when Mr. Britling, was +grieving for his own loss and humiliation and when he was grieving for +these common human weaknesses of which he had so large a share. + +And this double refraction of his mind by which a concentrated and +individualised Britling did but present a larger impersonal Britling +beneath, carried with it a duplication of his conscience and sense of +responsibility. To his personal conscience he was answerable for his +private honour and his debts and the Dower House he had made and so on, +but to his impersonal conscience he was answerable for the whole world. +The world from the latter point of view was his egg. He had a +subconscious delusion that he had laid it. He had a subconscious +suspicion that he had let it cool and that it was addled. He had an +urgency to incubate it. The variety and interest of his talk was largely +due to that persuasion, it was a perpetual attempt to spread his mental +feathers over the task before him.... + + +Section 3 + +After this much of explanation it is possible to go on to the task which +originally brought Mr. Direck to Matching's Easy, the task that +Massachusetts society had sent him upon, the task of organising the +mental unveiling of Mr. Britling. Mr. Direck saw Mr. Britling only in +the daylight, and with an increasing distraction of the attention +towards Miss Cecily Corner. We may see him rather _more_ clearly in the +darkness, without any distraction except his own. + +Now the smashing of Gladys was not only the source of a series of +reproaches and remorses directly arising out of the smash; it had also a +wide system of collateral consequences, which were also banging and +blundering their way through the Britling mind. It was extraordinarily +inconvenient in quite another direction that the automobile should be +destroyed. It upset certain plans of Mr. Britling's in a direction +growing right out from all the Dower House world in which Mr. Direck +supposed him to be completely set and rooted. There were certain matters +from which Mr. Britling had been averting his mind most strenuously +throughout the week-end. Now, there was no averting his mind any more. + +Mr. Britling was entangled in a love affair. It was, to be exact, and +disregarding minor affinities, his eighth love affair. And the new +automobile, so soon as he could drive it efficiently, was to have played +quite a solvent and conclusive part in certain entangled complications +of this relationship. + +A man of lively imagination and quick impulses naturally has love +affairs as he drives himself through life, just as he naturally has +accidents if he drives an automobile. + +And the peculiar relations that existed between Mr. Britling and Mrs. +Britling tended inevitably to make these love affairs troublesome, +undignified and futile. Especially when they were viewed from the point +of view of insomnia. + +Mr. Britling's first marriage had been a passionately happy one. His +second was by comparison a marriage in neutral tint. There is much to be +said for that extreme Catholic theory which would make marriage not +merely lifelong but eternal. Certainly Mr. Britling would have been a +finer if not a happier creature if his sentimental existence could have +died with his first wife or continued only in his love for their son. He +had married in the glow of youth, he had had two years of clean and +simple loving, helping, quarrelling and the happy ending of quarrels. +Something went out of him into all that, which could not be renewed +again. In his first extremity of grief he knew that perfectly well--and +then afterwards he forgot it. While there is life there is imagination, +which makes and forgets and goes on. + +He met Edith under circumstances that did not in any way recall his lost +Mary. He met her, as people say, "socially"; Mary, on the other hand, +had been a girl at Newnham while he was a fellow of Pembroke, and there +had been something of accident and something of furtiveness in their +lucky discovery of each other. There had been a flush in it; there was +dash in it. But Edith he saw and chose and had to woo. There was no +rushing together; there was solicitation and assent. Edith was a +Bachelor of Science of London University and several things like that, +and she looked upon the universe under her broad forehead and +broad-waving brown hair with quiet watchful eyes that had nothing +whatever to hide, a thing so incredible to Mr. Britling that he had +loved and married her very largely for the serenity of her mystery. And +for a time after their marriage he sailed over those brown depths +plumbing furiously. + +Of course he did not make his former passion for Mary at all clear to +her. Indeed, while he was winning Edith it was by no means clear to +himself. He was making a new emotional drama, and consciously and +subconsciously he dismissed a hundred reminiscences that sought to +invade the new experience, and which would have been out of key with it. +And without any deliberate intention to that effect he created an +atmosphere between himself and Edith in which any discussion of Mary was +reduced to a minimum, and in which Hugh was accepted rather than +explained. He contrived to believe that she understood all sorts of +unsayable things; he invented miracles of quite uncongenial mute +mutuality.... + +It was over the chess-board that they first began to discover their +extensive difficulties of sympathy. Mr. Britling's play was +characterised by a superficial brilliance, much generosity and extreme +unsoundness; he always moved directly his opponent had done so--and then +reflected on the situation. His reflection was commonly much wiser than +his moves. Mrs. Britling was, as it were, a natural antagonist to her +husband; she was as calm as he was irritable. She was never in a hurry +to move, and never disposed to make a concession. Quietly, steadfastly, +by caution and deliberation, without splendour, without error, she had +beaten him at chess until it led to such dreadful fits of anger that he +had to renounce the game altogether. After every such occasion he would +be at great pains to explain that he had merely been angry with himself. +Nevertheless he felt, and would not let himself think (while she +concluded from incidental heated phrases), that that was not the +complete truth about the outbreak. + +Slowly they got through the concealments of that specious explanation. +Temperamentally they were incompatible. + +They were profoundly incompatible. In all things she was defensive. She +never came out; never once had she surprised him halfway upon the road +to her. He had to go all the way to her and knock and ring, and then she +answered faithfully. She never surprised him even by unkindness. If he +had a cut finger she would bind it up very skilfully and healingly, but +unless he told her she never discovered he had a cut finger. He was +amazed she did not know of it before it happened. He piped and she did +not dance. That became the formula of his grievance. For several unhappy +years she thwarted him and disappointed him, while he filled her with +dumb inexplicable distresses. He had been at first so gay an activity, +and then he was shattered; fragments of him were still as gay and +attractive as ever, but between were outbreaks of anger, of hostility, +of something very like malignity. Only very slowly did they realise the +truth of their relationship and admit to themselves that the fine bud +of love between them had failed to flower, and only after long years +were they able to delimit boundaries where they had imagined union, and +to become--allies. If it had been reasonably possible for them to part +without mutual injury and recrimination they would have done so, but two +children presently held them, and gradually they had to work out the +broad mutual toleration of their later relations. If there was no love +and delight between them there was a real habitual affection and much +mutual help. She was proud of his steady progress to distinction, proud +of each intimation of respect he won; she admired and respected his +work; she recognised that he had some magic, of liveliness and +unexpectedness that was precious and enviable. So far as she could help +him she did. And even when he knew that there was nothing behind it, +that it was indeed little more than an imaginative inertness, he could +still admire and respect her steady dignity and her consistent +honourableness. Her practical capacity was for him a matter for +continual self-congratulation. He marked the bright order of her +household, her flowering borders, the prosperous high-born roses of her +garden with a wondering appreciation. He had never been able to keep +anything in order. He relied more and more upon her. He showed his +respect for her by a scrupulous attention to her dignity, and his +confidence by a franker and franker emotional neglect. Because she +expressed so little he succeeded in supposing she felt little, and since +nothing had come out of the brown depths of her eyes he saw fit at last +to suppose no plumb-line would ever find anything there. He pursued his +interests; he reached out to this and that; he travelled; she made it a +matter of conscience to let him go unhampered; she felt, she +thought--unrecorded; he did, and he expressed and re-expressed and +over-expressed, and started this and that with quick irrepressible +activity, and so there had accumulated about them the various items of +the life to whose more ostensible accidents Mr. Direck was now for an +indefinite period joined. + +It was in the nature of Mr. Britling to incur things; it was in the +nature of Mrs. Britling to establish them. Mr. Britling had taken the +Dower House on impulse, and she had made it a delightful home. He had +discovered the disorderly delights of mixed Sunday hockey one week-end +at Pontings that had promised to be dull, and she had made it an +institution.... He had come to her with his orphan boy and a memory of a +passionate first loss that sometimes, and more particularly at first, he +seemed to have forgotten altogether, and at other times was only too +evidently lamenting with every fibre of his being. She had taken the +utmost care of the relics of her duskily pretty predecessor that she +found in unexpected abundance in Mr. Britling's possession, and she had +done her duty by her sometimes rather incomprehensible stepson. She +never allowed herself to examine the state of her heart towards this +youngster; it is possible that she did not perceive the necessity for +any such examination.... + +So she went through life, outwardly serene and dignified, one of a great +company of rather fastidious, rather unenterprising women who have +turned for their happiness to secondary things, to those fair inanimate +things of household and garden which do not turn again and rend one, to +aestheticisms and delicacies, to order and seemliness. Moreover she +found great satisfaction in the health and welfare, the growth and +animation of her own two little boys. And no one knew, and perhaps even +she had contrived to forget, the phases of astonishment and +disillusionment, of doubt and bitterness and secret tears, that spread +out through the years in which she had slowly realised that this +strange, fitful, animated man who had come to her, vowing himself hers, +asking for her so urgently and persuasively, was ceasing, had ceased, to +love her, that his heart had escaped her, that she had missed it; she +never dreamt that she had hurt it, and that after its first urgent, +tumultuous, incomprehensible search for her it had hidden itself +bitterly away.... + + +Section 4 + +The mysterious processes of nature that had produced Mr. Britling had +implanted in him an obstinate persuasion that somewhere in the world, +from some human being, it was still possible to find the utmost +satisfaction for every need and craving. He could imagine as existing, +as waiting for him, he knew not where, a completeness of understanding, +a perfection of response, that would reach all the gamut of his feelings +and sensations from the most poetical to the most entirely physical, a +beauty of relationship so transfiguring that not only would she--it went +without saying that this completion was a woman--be perfectly beautiful +in its light but, what was manifestly more incredible, that he too would +be perfectly beautiful and quite at his ease.... In her presence there +could be no self-reproaches, no lapses, no limitations, nothing but +happiness and the happiest activities.... To such a persuasion half the +imaginative people in the world succumb as readily and naturally as +ducklings take to water. They do not doubt its truth any more than a +thirsty camel doubts that presently it will come to a spring. + +This persuasion is as foolish as though a camel hoped that some day it +would drink from such a spring that it would never thirst again. For the +most part Mr. Britling ignored its presence in his mind, and resisted +the impulses it started. But at odd times, and more particularly in the +afternoon and while travelling and in between books, Mr. Britling so far +succumbed to this strange expectation of a wonder round the corner that +he slipped the anchors of his humour and self-contempt and joined the +great cruising brotherhood of the Pilgrims of Love.... + +In fact--though he himself had never made a reckoning of it--he had +been upon eight separate cruises. He was now upon the eighth.... + +Between these various excursions--they took him round and about the +world, so to speak, they cast him away on tropical beaches, they left +him dismasted on desolate seas, they involved the most startling +interventions and the most inconvenient consequences--there were +interludes of penetrating philosophy. For some years the suspicion had +been growing up in Mr. Britling's mind that in planting this persuasion +in his being, the mysterious processes of Nature had been, perhaps for +some purely biological purpose, pulling, as people say, his leg, that +there were not these perfect responses, that loving a woman is a thing +one does thoroughly once for all--or so--and afterwards recalls +regrettably in a series of vain repetitions, and that the career of the +Pilgrim of Love, so soon as you strip off its credulous glamour, is +either the most pitiful or the most vulgar and vile of perversions from +the proper conduct of life. But this suspicion had not as yet grown to +prohibitive dimensions with him, it was not sufficient to resist the +seasons of high tide, the sudden promise of the salt-edged breeze, the +invitation of the hovering sea-bird; and he was now concealing beneath +the lively surface of activities with which Mr. Direck was now familiar, +a very extensive system of distresses arising out of the latest, the +eighth of these digressional adventures.... + +Mr. Britling had got into it very much as he had got into the ditch on +the morning before his smash. He hadn't thought the affair out and he +hadn't looked carefully enough. And it kept on developing in just the +ways he would rather that it didn't. + +The seventh affair had been very disconcerting. He had made a fool of +himself with quite a young girl; he blushed to think how young; it +hadn't gone very far, but it had made his nocturnal reflections so +disagreeable that he had--by no means for the first time--definitely +and forever given up these foolish dreams of love. And when Mrs. +Harrowdean swam into his circle, she seemed just exactly what was wanted +to keep his imagination out of mischief. She came bearing flattery to +the pitch of adoration. She was the brightest and cleverest of young +widows. She wrote quite admirably criticism in the _Scrutator_ and the +_Sectarian_, and occasionally poetry in the _Right Review_--when she +felt disposed to do so. She had an intermittent vein of high spirits +that was almost better than humour and made her quickly popular with +most of the people she met, and she was only twenty miles away in her +pretty house and her absurd little jolly park. + +There was something, she said, in his thought and work that was like +walking in mountains. She came to him because she wanted to clamber +about the peaks and glens of his mind. + +It was natural to reply that he wasn't by any means the serene mountain +elevation she thought him, except perhaps for a kind of loneliness.... + +She was a great reader of eighteenth century memoirs, and some she +conveyed to him. Her mental quality was all in the vein of the +friendships of Rousseau and Voltaire, and pleasantly and trippingly she +led him along the primrose path of an intellectual liaison. She came +first to Matching's Easy, where she was sweet and bright and vividly +interested and a great contrast to Mrs. Britling, and then he and she +met in London, and went off together with a fine sense of adventure for +a day at Richmond, and then he took some work with him to her house and +stayed there.... + +Then she went away into Scotland for a time and he wanted her again +tremendously and clamoured for her eloquently, and then it was apparent +and admitted between them that they were admirably in love, oh! +immensely in love. + +The transitions from emotional mountaineering to ardent intimacies were +so rapid and impulsive that each phase obliterated its predecessor, and +it was only with a vague perplexity that Mr. Britling found himself +transferred from the role of a mountainous objective for pretty little +pilgrims to that of a sedulous lover in pursuit of the happiness of one +of the most uncertain, intricate, and entrancing of feminine +personalities. This was not at all his idea of the proper relations +between men and women, but Mrs. Harrowdean had a way of challenging his +gallantry. She made him run about for her; she did not demand but she +commanded presents and treats and surprises; she even developed a +certain jealousy in him. His work began to suffer from interruptions. +Yet they had glowing and entertaining moments together that could temper +his rebellious thoughts with the threat of irreparable loss. "One must +love, and all things in life are imperfect," was how Mr. Britling +expressed his reasons for submission. And she had a hold upon him too in +a certain facile pitifulness. She was little; she could be stung +sometimes by the slightest touch and then her blue eyes would be bright +with tears. + +Those possible tears could weigh at times even more than those possible +lost embraces. + +And there was Oliver. + +Oliver was a person Mr. Britling had never seen. He grew into the scheme +of things by insensible gradations. He was a government official in +London; he was, she said, extraordinarily dull, he was lacking +altogether in Mr. Britling's charm and interest, but he was faithful and +tender and true. And considerably younger than Mr. Britling. He asked +nothing but to love. He offered honourable marriage. And when one's +heart was swelling unendurably one could weep in safety on his patient +shoulder. This patient shoulder of Oliver's ultimately became Mr. +Britling's most exasperating rival. + +She liked to vex him with Oliver. She liked to vex him generally. Indeed +in this by no means abnormal love affair, there was a very strong +antagonism. She seemed to resent the attraction Mr. Britling had for +her and the emotions and pleasure she had with him. She seemed under the +sway of an instinctive desire to make him play heavily for her, in time, +in emotion, in self-respect. It was intolerable to her that he could +take her easily and happily. That would be taking her cheaply. She +valued his gifts by the bother they cost him, and was determined that +the path of true love should not, if she could help it, run smooth. Mr. +Britling on the other hand was of the school of polite and happy lovers. +He thought it outrageous to dispute and contradict, and he thought that +making love was a cheerful, comfortable thing to be done in a state of +high good humour and intense mutual appreciation. This levity offended +the lady's pride. She drew unfavourable contrasts with Oliver. If Oliver +lacked charm he certainly did not lack emotion. He desired sacrifice, it +seemed, almost more than satisfactions. Oliver was a person of the most +exemplary miserableness; he would weep copiously and frequently. She +could always make him weep when she wanted to do so. By holding out +hopes and then dashing them if by no other expedient. Why did Mr. +Britling never weep? She wept. + +Some base streak of competitiveness in Mr. Britling's nature made it +seem impossible that he should relinquish the lady to Oliver. Besides, +then, what would he do with his dull days, his afternoons, his need for +a properly demonstrated affection? + +So Mr. Britling trod the path of his eighth digression, rather +overworked in the matter of flowers and the selection of small +jewellery, stalked by the invisible and indefatigable Oliver, haunted +into an unwilling industry of attentions--attentions on the model of the +professional lover of the French novels--by the memory and expectation +of tearful scenes. "Then you don't love me! And it's all spoilt. I've +risked talk and my reputation.... I was a fool ever to dream of making +love beautifully...." + +Exactly like running your car into a soft wet ditch when you cannot get +out and you cannot get on. And your work and your interests waiting and +waiting for you!... + +The car itself was an outcome of the affair. It was Mrs. Harrowdean's +idea, she thought chiefly of pleasant expeditions to friendly inns in +remote parts of the country, inns with a flavour of tacit complicity, +but it fell in very pleasantly with Mr. Britling's private resentment at +the extraordinary inconvenience of the railway communications between +Matching's Easy and her station at Pyecrafts, which involved a journey +to Liverpool Street and a long wait at a junction. And now the car was +smashed up--just when he had acquired skill enough to take it over to +Pyecrafts without shame, and on Tuesday or Wednesday at latest he would +have to depart in the old way by the London train.... + +Only the most superficial mind would assert nowadays that man is a +reasonable creature. Man is an unreasonable creature, and it was +entirely unreasonable and human for Mr. Britling during his nocturnal +self-reproaches to mix up his secret resentment at his infatuation for +Mrs. Harrowdean with his ill-advised attack upon the wall of Brandismead +Park. He ought never to have bought that car; he ought never to have +been so ready to meet Mrs. Harrowdean more than halfway. + +What exacerbated his feeling about Mrs. Harrowdean was a new line she +had recently taken with regard to Mrs. Britling. From her first rash +assumption that Mr. Britling was indifferent to his wife, she had come +to realise that on the contrary he was in some ways extremely tender +about his wife. This struck her as an outrageous disloyalty. Instead of +appreciating a paradox she resented an infidelity. She smouldered with +perplexed resentment for some days, and then astonished her lover by a +series of dissertations of a hostile and devastating nature upon the +lady of the Dower House. + +He tried to imagine he hadn't heard all that he had heard, but Mrs. +Harrowdean had a nimble pen and nimbler afterthoughts, and once her mind +had got to work upon the topic she developed her offensive in +half-a-dozen brilliant letters.... On the other hand she professed a +steadily increasing passion for Mr. Britling. And to profess +passion for Mr. Britling was to put him under a sense of profound +obligation--because indeed he was a modest man. He found himself in an +emotional quandary. + +You see, if Mrs. Harrowdean had left Mrs. Britling alone everything +would have been quite tolerable. He considered Mrs. Harrowdean a +charming human being, and altogether better than he deserved. Ever so +much better. She was all initiative and response and that sort of thing. +And she was so discreet. She had her own reputation to think about, and +one or two of her predecessors--God rest the ashes of those fires!--had +not been so discreet. Yet one could not have this sort of thing going on +behind Edith's back. All sorts of things one might have going on behind +Edith's back, but not this writing and saying of perfectly beastly +things about Edith. Nothing could alter the fact that Edith was his +honour.... + + +Section 5 + +Throughout the week-end Mr. Britling had kept this trouble well battened +down. He had written to Mrs. Harrowdean a brief ambiguous note saying, +"I am thinking over all that you have said," and after that he had +scarcely thought about her at all. Or at least he had always contrived +to be much more vividly thinking about something else. But now in these +night silences the suppressed trouble burst hatches and rose about him. + +What a mess he had made of the whole scheme of his emotional life! There +had been a time when he had started out as gaily with his passions and +his honour as he had started out with Gladys to go to Market Saffron. +He had as little taste for complications as he had for ditches. And now +his passions and his honour were in a worse case even than poor muddy +smashed up Gladys as the cart-horses towed her off, for she at any rate +might be repaired. But he--he was a terribly patched fabric of +explanations now. Not indeed that he had ever stooped to explanations. +But there he was! Far away, like a star seen down the length of a +tunnel, was that first sad story of a love as clean as starlight. It had +been all over by eight-and-twenty and he could find it in his heart to +grieve that he had ever given a thought to love again. He should have +lived a decent widower.... Then Edith had come into his life, Edith that +honest and unconscious defaulter. And there again he should have stuck +to his disappointment. He had stuck to it--nine days out of every ten. +It's the tenth day, it's the odd seductive moment, it's the instant of +confident pride--and there is your sanguine temperament in the ditch. + +He began to recapitulate items in the catalogue of his escapades, and +the details of his automobile misadventures mixed themselves up with the +story of his heart steering. For example there was that tremendous +Siddons affair. He had been taking the corner of a girlish friendship +and he had taken it altogether too far. What a frightful mess that had +been! When once one is off the road anything may happen, from a crumpled +mud-guard to the car on the top of you. And there was his forty miles an +hour spurt with the great and gifted Delphine Marquise--for whom he was +to have written a play and been a perfect Annunzio. Until Willersley +appeared--very like the motor-cyclist--buzzing in the opposite +direction. And then had ensued angers, humiliations.... + +Had every man this sort of crowded catalogue? Was every +forty-five-year-old memory a dark tunnel receding from the star of +youth? It is surely a pity that life cannot end at thirty. It comes to +one clean and in perfect order.... + +Is experience worth having? + +What a clean, straight thing the spirit of youth is. It is like a bright +new spear. It is like a finely tempered sword. The figure of his boy +took possession of his mind, his boy who looked out on the world with +his mother's dark eyes, the slender son of that whole-hearted first +love. He was a being at once fine and simple, an intimate mystery. Must +he in his turn get dented and wrinkled and tarnished? + +The boy was in trouble. What was the trouble? + +Was it some form of the same trouble that had so tangled and tainted and +scarred the private pride of his father? And how was it possible for Mr. +Britling, disfigured by heedless misadventures, embarrassed by +complications and concealments, to help this honest youngster out of his +perplexities? He imagined possible forms of these perplexities. +Graceless forms. Ugly forms. Such forms as only the nocturnal +imagination would have dared present.... + +Oh, why had he been such a Britling? Why was he still such a Britling? + +Mr. Britling sat up in his bed and beat at the bedclothes with his +fists. He uttered uncompleted vows, "From this hour forth ... from this +hour forth...." + +He must do something, he felt. At any rate he had his experiences. He +could warn. He could explain away. Perhaps he might help to extricate, +if things had got to that pitch. + +Should he write to his son? For a time he revolved a long, tactful +letter in his mind. But that was impossible. Suppose the trouble was +something quite different? It would have to be a letter in the most +general terms.... + + +Section 6 + +It was in the doubly refracting nature of Mr. Britling's mind that while +he was deploring his inefficiency in regard to his son, he was also +deploring the ineffectiveness of all his generation of parents. Quite +insensibly his mind passed over to the generalised point of view. + +In his talks with Mr. Direck, Mr. Britling could present England as a +great and amiable spectacle of carelessness and relaxation, but was it +indeed an amiable spectacle? The point that Mr. Direck had made about +the barn rankled in his thoughts. His barn was a barn no longer, his +farmyard held no cattle; he was just living laxly in the buildings that +ancient needs had made, he was living on the accumulated prosperity of +former times, the spendthrift heir of toiling generations. Not only was +he a pampered, undisciplined sort of human being; he was living in a +pampered, undisciplined sort of community. The two things went +together.... This confounded Irish business, one could laugh at it in +the daylight, but was it indeed a thing to laugh at? We were drifting +lazily towards a real disaster. We had a government that seemed guided +by the principles of Mr. Micawber, and adopted for its watchword "Wait +and see." For months now this trouble had grown more threatening. +Suppose presently that civil war broke out in Ireland! Suppose presently +that these irritated, mishandled suffragettes did some desperate +irreconcilable thing, assassinated for example! The bomb in Westminster +Abbey the other day might have killed a dozen people.... Suppose the +smouldering criticism of British rule in India and Egypt were fanned by +administrative indiscretions into a flame.... + +And then suppose Germany had made trouble.... + +Usually Mr. Britling kept his mind off Germany. In the daytime he +pretended Germany meant nothing to England. He hated alarmists. He hated +disagreeable possibilities. He declared the idea of a whole vast nation +waiting to strike at us incredible. Why should they? You cannot have +seventy million lunatics.... But in the darkness of the night one cannot +dismiss things in this way. Suppose, after all, their army was more +than a parade, their navy more than a protest? + +We might be caught--It was only in the vast melancholia of such +occasions that Mr. Britling would admit such possibilities, but we might +be caught by some sudden declaration of war.... And how should we face +it? + +He recalled the afternoon's talk at Claverings and such samples of our +governmental machinery as he chanced to number among his personal +acquaintance. Suppose suddenly the enemy struck! With Raeburn and his +friends to defend us! Or if the shock tumbled them out of power, then +with these vituperative Tories, these spiteful advocates of weak +tyrannies and privileged pretences in the place of them. There was no +leadership in England. In the lucid darkness he knew that with a +terrible certitude. He had a horrible vision of things disastrously +muffled; of Lady Frensham and her _Morning Post_ friends first +garrulously and maliciously "patriotic," screaming her way with +incalculable mischiefs through the storm, and finally discovering that +the Germans were the real aristocrats and organising our national +capitulation on that understanding. He knew from talk he had heard that +the navy was weak in mines and torpedoes, unprovided with the great +monitors needed for a war with Germany; torn by doctrinaire feuds; +nevertheless the sea power was our only defence. In the whole country we +might muster a military miscellany of perhaps three hundred thousand +men. And he had no faith in their equipment, in their direction. General +French, the one man who had his entire confidence, had been forced to +resign through some lawyer's misunderstanding about the Irish +difficulty. He did not believe any plans existed for such a war as +Germany might force upon us, any calculation, any foresight of the thing +at all. + +Why had we no foresight? Why had we this wilful blindness to +disagreeable possibilities? Why did we lie so open to the unexpected +crisis? Just what he said of himself he said also of his country. It was +curious to remember that. To realise how closely Dower House could play +the microcosm to the whole Empire.... + +It became relevant to the trend of his thoughts that his son had through +his mother a strong strain of the dark Irish in his composition. + +How we had wasted Ireland! The rich values that lay in Ireland, the +gallantry and gifts, the possible friendliness, all these things were +being left to the Ulster politicians and the Tory women to poison and +spoil, just as we left India to the traditions of the chattering army +women and the repressive instincts of our mandarins. We were too lazy, +we were too negligent. We passed our indolent days leaving everything to +somebody else. Was this the incurable British, just as it was the +incurable Britling, quality? + +Was the whole prosperity of the British, the far-flung empire, the +securities, the busy order, just their good luck? It was a question he +had asked a hundred times of his national as of his personal self. No +doubt luck had favoured him. He was prosperous, and he was still only at +the livelier end of middle age. But was there not also a personal +factor, a meritorious factor? Luck had favoured the British with a +well-placed island, a hardening climate, accessible minerals, but then +too was there not also a national virtue? Once he had believed in that, +in a certain gallantry, a noble levity, an underlying sound sense. The +last ten years of politics had made him doubt that profoundly. He clung +to it still, but without confidence. In the night that dear persuasion +left him altogether.... As for himself he had a certain brightness and +liveliness of mind, but the year of his fellowship had been a soft year, +he had got on to _The Times_ through something very like a +misapprehension, and it was the chances of a dinner and a duchess that +had given him the opportunity of the Kahn show. He'd dropped into good +things that suited him. That at any rate was the essence of it. And +these lucky chances had been no incentive to further effort. Because +things had gone easily and rapidly with him he had developed indolence +into a philosophy. Here he was just over forty, and explaining to the +world, explaining all through the week-end to this American--until even +God could endure it no longer and the smash stopped him--how excellent +was the backwardness of Essex and English go-as-you-please, and how +through good temper it made in some mysterious way for all that was +desirable. A fat English doctrine. _Punch_ has preached it for forty +years. + +But this wasn't what he had always been. He thought of the strenuous +intentions of his youth, before he had got into this turmoil of amorous +experiences, while he was still out there with the clean star of youth. +As Hugh was.... + +In those days he had had no amiable doctrine of compromise. He had +truckled to no "domesticated God," but talked of the "pitiless truth"; +he had tolerated no easy-going pseudo-aristocratic social system, but +dreamt of such a democracy "mewing its mighty youth" as the world had +never seen. He had thought that his brains were to do their share in +building up this great national _imago_, winged, divine, out of the +clumsy, crawling, snobbish, comfort-loving caterpillar of Victorian +England. With such dreams his life had started, and the light of them, +perhaps, had helped him to his rapid success. And then his wife had +died, and he had married again and become somehow more interested in his +income, and then the rather expensive first of the eight experiences had +drained off so much of his imaginative energy, and the second had +drained off so much, and there had been quarrels and feuds, and the way +had been lost, and the days had passed. He hadn't failed. Indeed he +counted as a success among his generation. He alone, in the night +watches, could gauge the quality of that success. He was widely known, +reputably known; he prospered. Much had come, oh! by a mysterious luck, +but everything was doomed by his invincible defects. Beneath that +hollow, enviable show there ached waste. Waste, waste, waste--his heart, +his imagination, his wife, his son, his country--his automobile.... + +Then there flashed into his mind a last straw of disagreeable +realisation. + +He hadn't as yet insured his automobile! He had meant to do so. The +papers were on his writing-desk. + + +Section 7 + +On these black nights, when the personal Mr. Britling would lie awake +thinking how unsatisfactorily Mr. Britling was going on, and when the +impersonal Mr. Britling would be thinking how unsatisfactorily his +universe was going on, the whole mental process had a likeness to some +complex piece of orchestral music wherein the organ deplored the +melancholy destinies of the race while the piccolo lamented the secret +trouble of Mrs. Harrowdean; the big drum thundered at the Irish +politicians, and all the violins bewailed the intellectual laxity of the +university system. Meanwhile the trumpets prophesied wars and disasters, +the cymbals ever and again inserted a clashing jar about the fatal delay +in the automobile insurance, while the triangle broke into a plangent +solo on the topic of a certain rotten gate-post he always forgot in the +daytime, and how in consequence the cows from the glebe farm got into +the garden and ate Mrs. Britling's carnations. + +Time after time he had promised to see to that gate-post.... + +The organ _motif_ battled its way to complete predominance. The lesser +themes were drowned or absorbed. Mr. Britling returned from the role of +an incompetent automobilist to the role of a soul naked in space and +time wrestling with giant questions. These cosmic solicitudes, it may +be, are the last penalty of irreligion. Was Huxley right, and was all +humanity, even as Mr. Britling, a careless, fitful thing, playing a +tragically hopeless game, thinking too slightly, moving too quickly, +against a relentless antagonist? + +Or is the whole thing just witless, accidentally cruel perhaps, but not +malignant? Or is it wise, and merely refusing to pamper us? Is there +somewhere in the immensities some responsive kindliness, some faint hope +of toleration and assistance, something sensibly on our side against +death and mechanical cruelty? If so, it certainly refuses to pamper +us.... But if the whole thing is cruel, perhaps also it is witless and +will-less? One cannot imagine the ruler of everything a devil--that +would be silly. So if at the worst it is inanimate then anyhow we have +our poor wills and our poor wits to pit against it. And manifestly then, +the good of life, the significance of any life that is not mere +receptivity, lies in the disciplined and clarified will and the +sharpened and tempered mind. And what for the last twenty years--for all +his lectures and writings--had he been doing to marshal the will and +harden the mind which were his weapons against the Dark? He was ready +enough to blame others--dons, politicians, public apathy, but what was +he himself doing? + +What was he doing now? + +Lying in bed! + +His son was drifting to ruin, his country was going to the devil, the +house was a hospital of people wounded by his carelessness, the country +roads choked with his smashed (and uninsured) automobiles, the cows were +probably lined up along the borders and munching Edith's carnations at +this very moment, his pocketbook and bureau were stuffed with venomous +insults about her--and he was just lying in bed! + +Suddenly Mr. Britling threw back his bedclothes and felt for the matches +on his bedside table. + +Indeed this was by no means the first time that his brain had become a +whirring torment in his skull. Previous experiences had led to the most +careful provision for exactly such states. Over the end of the bed hung +a light, warm pyjama suit of llama-wool, and at the feet of it were two +tall boots of the same material that buckled to the middle of his calf. +So protected, Mr. Britling proceeded to make himself tea. A Primus stove +stood ready inside the fender of his fireplace, and on it was a brightly +polished brass kettle filled with water; a little table carried a +tea-caddy, a tea-pot, a lemon and a glass. Mr. Britling lit the stove +and then strolled to his desk. He was going to write certain "Plain +Words about Ireland." He lit his study lamp and meditated beside it +until a sound of water boiling called him to his tea-making. + +He returned to his desk stirring the lemon in his glass of tea. He would +write the plain common sense of this Irish situation. He would put +things so plainly that this squabbling folly would _have_ to cease. It +should be done austerely, with a sort of ironical directness. There +should be no abuse, no bitterness, only a deep passion of sanity. + +What is the good of grieving over a smashed automobile? + +He sipped his tea and made a few notes on his writing pad. His face in +the light of his shaded reading lamp had lost its distraught expression, +his hand fingered his familiar fountain pen.... + + +Section 8 + +The next morning Mr. Britling came into Mr. Direck's room. He was pink +from his morning bath, he was wearing a cheerful green-and-blue silk +dressing gown, he had shaved already, he showed no trace of his +nocturnal vigil. In the bathroom he had whistled like a bird. "Had a +good night?" he said. "That's famous. So did I. And the wrist and arm +didn't even ache enough to keep you awake?" + +"I thought I heard you talking and walking about," said Mr. Direck. + +"I got up for a little bit and worked. I often do that. I hope I didn't +disturb you. Just for an hour or so. It's so delightfully quiet in the +night...." + +He went to the window and blinked at the garden outside. His two younger +sons appeared on their bicycles returning from some early expedition. He +waved a hand of greeting. It was one of those summer mornings when +attenuated mist seems to fill the very air with sunshine dust. + +"This is the sunniest morning bedroom in the house," he said. "It's +south-east." + +The sunlight slashed into the masses of the blue cedar outside with a +score of golden spears. + +"The Dayspring from on High," he said.... "I thought of rather a useful +pamphlet in the night. + +"I've been thinking about your luggage at that hotel," he went on, +turning to his guest again. "You'll have to write and get it packed up +and sent down here-- + +"No," he said, "we won't let you go until you can hit out with that arm +and fell a man. Listen!" + +Mr. Direck could not distinguish any definite sound. + +"The smell of frying rashers, I mean," said Mr. Britling. "It's the +clarion of the morn in every proper English home.... + +"You'd like a rasher, coffee? + +"It's good to work in the night, and it's good to wake in the morning," +said Mr. Britling, rubbing his hands together. "I suppose I wrote nearly +two thousand words. So quiet one is, so concentrated. And as soon as I +have had my breakfast I shall go on with it again." + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIFTH + +THE COMING OF THE DAY + + +Section 1 + +It was quite characteristic of the state of mind of England in the +summer of 1914 that Mr. Britling should be mightily concerned about the +conflict in Ireland, and almost deliberately negligent of the +possibility of a war with Germany. + +The armament of Germany, the hostility of Germany, the consistent +assertion of Germany, the world-wide clash of British and German +interests, had been facts in the consciousness of Englishmen for more +than a quarter of a century. A whole generation had been born and +brought up in the threat of this German war. A threat that goes on for +too long ceases to have the effect of a threat, and this overhanging +possibility had become a fixed and scarcely disturbing feature of the +British situation. It kept the navy sedulous and Colonel Rendezvous +uneasy; it stimulated a small and not very influential section of the +press to a series of reminders that bored Mr. Britling acutely, it was +the excuse for an agitation that made national service ridiculous, and +quite subconsciously it affected his attitude to a hundred things. For +example, it was a factor in his very keen indignation at the Tory levity +in Ireland, in his disgust with many things that irritated or estranged +Indian feeling. It bored him; there it was, a danger, and there was no +denying it, and yet he believed firmly that it was a mine that would +never be fired, an avalanche that would never fall. It was a nuisance, a +stupidity, that kept Europe drilling and wasted enormous sums on +unavoidable preparations; it hung up everything like a noisy argument in +a drawing-room, but that human weakness and folly would ever let the +mine actually explode he did not believe. He had been in France in 1911, +he had seen how close things had come then to a conflict, and the fact +that they had not come to a conflict had enormously strengthened his +natural disposition to believe that at bottom Germany was sane and her +militarism a bluff. + +But the Irish difficulty was a different thing. There, he felt, was need +for the liveliest exertions. A few obstinate people in influential +positions were manifestly pushing things to an outrageous point.... + +He wrote through the morning--and as the morning progressed the judicial +calm of his opening intentions warmed to a certain regrettable vigour of +phrasing about our politicians, about our political ladies, and our +hand-to-mouth press.... + +He came down to lunch in a frayed, exhausted condition, and was much +afflicted by a series of questions from Herr Heinrich. For it was an +incurable characteristic of Herr Heinrich that he asked questions; the +greater part of his conversation took the form of question and answer, +and his thirst for information was as marked as his belief that German +should not simply be spoken but spoken "out loud." He invariably +prefaced his inquiries with the word "Please," and he insisted upon +ascribing an omniscience to his employer that it was extremely irksome +to justify after a strenuous morning of enthusiastic literary effort. He +now took the opportunity of a lull in the solicitudes and +congratulations that had followed Mr. Direck's appearance--and Mr. +Direck was so little shattered by his misadventure that with the +assistance of the kindly Teddy he had got up and dressed and come down +to lunch--to put the matter that had been occupying his mind all the +morning, even to the detriment of the lessons of the Masters Britling. + +"Please!" he said, going a deeper shade of pink and partly turning to +Mr. Britling. + +A look of resignation came into Mr. Britling's eyes. "Yes?" he said. + +"I do not think it will be wise to take my ticket for the Esperanto +Conference at Boulogne. Because I think it is probable to be war between +Austria and Servia, and that Russia may make war on Austria." + +"That may happen. But I think it improbable." + +"If Russia makes war on Austria, Germany will make war on Russia, will +she not?" + +"Not if she is wise," said Mr. Britling, "because that would bring in +France." + +"That is why I ask. If Germany goes to war with France I should have to +go to Germany to do my service. It will be a great inconvenience to me." + +"I don't imagine Germany will do anything so frantic as to attack +Russia. That would not only bring in France but ourselves." + +"England?" + +"Of course. We can't afford to see France go under. The thing is as +plain as daylight. So plain that it cannot possibly happen.... +Cannot.... Unless Germany wants a universal war." + +"Thank you," said Herr Heinrich, looking obedient rather than reassured. + +"I suppose now," said Mr. Direck after a pause, "that there isn't any +strong party in Germany that wants a war. That young Crown Prince, for +example." + +"They keep him in order," said Mr. Britling a little irritably. "They +keep him in order.... + +"I used to be an alarmist about Germany," said Mr. Britling, "but I have +come to feel more and more confidence in the sound common sense of the +mass of the German population, and in the Emperor too if it comes to +that. He is--if Herr Heinrich will permit me to agree with his own +German comic papers--sometimes a little theatrical, sometimes a little +egotistical, but in his operatic, boldly coloured way he means peace. I +am convinced he means peace...." + + +Section 2 + +After lunch Mr. Britling had a brilliant idea for the ease and comfort +of Mr. Direck. + +It seemed as though Mr. Direck would be unable to write any letters +until his wrist had mended. Teddy tried him with a typewriter, but Mr. +Direck was very awkward with his left hand, and then Mr. Britling +suddenly remembered a little peculiarity he had which it was possible +that Mr. Direck might share unconsciously, and that was his gift of +looking-glass writing with his left hand. Mr. Britling had found out +quite by chance in his schoolboy days that while his right hand had been +laboriously learning to write, his left hand, all unsuspected, had been +picking up the same lesson, and that by taking a pencil in his left hand +and writing from right to left, without watching what he was writing, +and then examining the scrawl in a mirror, he could reproduce his own +handwriting in exact reverse. About three people out of five have this +often quite unsuspected ability. He demonstrated his gift, and then Miss +Cecily Corner, who had dropped in in a casual sort of way to ask about +Mr. Direck, tried it, and then Mr. Direck tried it. And they could all +do it. And then Teddy brought a sheet of copying carbon, and so Mr. +Direck, by using the carbon reversed under his paper, was restored to +the world of correspondence again. + +They sat round a little table under the cedar trees amusing themselves +with these experiments, and after that Cecily and Mr. Britling and the +two small boys entertained themselves by drawing pigs with their eyes +shut, and then Mr. Britling and Teddy played hard at Badminton until it +was time for tea. And Cecily sat by Mr. Direck and took an interest in +his accident, and he told her about summer holidays in the Adirondacks +and how he loved to travel. She said she would love to travel. He said +that so soon as he was better he would go on to Paris and then into +Germany. He was extraordinarily curious about this Germany and its +tremendous militarism. He'd far rather see it than Italy, which was, he +thought, just all art and ancient history. His turn was for modern +problems. Though of course he didn't intend to leave out Italy while he +was at it. And then their talk was scattered, and there was great +excitement because Herr Heinrich had lost his squirrel. + +He appeared coming out of the house into the sunshine, and so distraught +that he had forgotten the protection of his hat. He was very pink and +deeply moved. + +"But what shall I do without him?" he cried. "He has gone!" + +The squirrel, Mr. Direck gathered, had been bought by Mrs. Britling for +the boys some month or so ago; it had been christened "Bill" and adored +and then neglected, until Herr Heinrich took it over. It had filled a +place in his ample heart that the none too demonstrative affection of +the Britling household had left empty. He abandoned his pursuit of +philology almost entirely for the cherishing and adoration of this busy, +nimble little creature. He carried it off to his own room, where it ran +loose and took the greatest liberties with him and his apartment. It was +an extraordinarily bold and savage little beast even for a squirrel, but +Herr Heinrich had set his heart and his very large and patient will upon +the establishment of sentimental relations. He believed that ultimately +Bill would let himself be stroked, that he would make Bill love him and +understand him, and that his would be the only hand that Bill would ever +suffer to touch him. In the meanwhile even the untamed Bill was +wonderful to watch. One could watch him forever. His front paws were +like hands, like a musician's hands, very long and narrow. "He would be +a musician if he could only make his fingers go apart, because when I +play my violin he listens. He is attentive." + +The entire household became interested in Herr Heinrich's attacks upon +Bill's affection. They watched his fingers with particular interest +because it was upon those that Bill vented his failures to respond to +the stroking advances. + +"To-day I have stroked him once and he has bitten me three times," Herr +Heinrich reported. "Soon I will stroke him three times and he shall not +bite me at all.... Also yesterday he climbed up me and sat on my +shoulder, and suddenly bit my ear. It was not hard he bit, but sudden. + +"He does not mean to bite," said Herr Heinrich. "Because when he has bit +me he is sorry. He is ashamed. + +"You can see he is ashamed." + +Assisted by the two small boys, Herr Heinrich presently got a huge bough +of oak and brought it into his room, converting the entire apartment +into the likeness of an aviary. "For this," said Herr Heinrich, looking +grave and diplomatic through his glasses, "Billy will be very grateful. +And it will give him confidence with me. It will make him feel we are in +the forest together." + +Mrs. Britling came to console her husband in the matter. + +"It is not right that the bedroom should be filled with trees. All sorts +of dust and litter came in with it." + +"If it amuses him," said Mr. Britling. + +"But it makes work for the servants." + +"Do they complain?" + +"No." + +"Things will adjust themselves. And it is amusing that he should do such +a thing...." + +And now Billy had disappeared, and Herr Heinrich was on the verge of +tears. It was so ungrateful of Billy. Without a word. + +"They leave my window open," he complained to Mr. Direck. "Often I have +askit them not to. And of course he did not understand. He has out +climbit by the ivy. Anything may have happened to him. Anything. He is +not used to going out alone. He is too young. + +"Perhaps if I call--" + +And suddenly he had gone off round the house crying: "Beelee! Beelee! +Here is an almond for you! An almond, Beelee!" + +"Makes me want to get up and help," said Mr. Direck. "It's a tragedy." + +Everybody else was helping. Even the gardener and his boy knocked off +work and explored the upper recesses of various possible trees. + +"He is too young," said Herr Heinrich, drifting back.... And then +presently: "If he heard my voice I am sure he would show himself. But he +does not show himself." + +It was clear he feared the worst.... + +At supper Billy was the sole topic of conversation, and condolence was +in the air. The impression that on the whole he had displayed rather a +brutal character was combated by Herr Heinrich, who held that a certain +brusqueness was Billy's only fault, and told anecdotes, almost sacred +anecdotes, of the little creature's tenderer, nobler side. "When I feed +him always he says, 'Thank you,'" said Herr Heinrich. "He never fails." +He betrayed darker thoughts. "When I went round by the barn there was a +cat that sat and looked at me out of a laurel bush," he said. "I do not +like cats." + +Mr. Lawrence Carmine, who had dropped in, was suddenly reminded of that +lugubrious old ballad, "The Mistletoe Bough," and recited large worn +fragments of it impressively. It tells of how a beautiful girl hid away +in a chest during a Christmas game of hide-and-seek, and how she was +found, a dried vestige, years afterwards. It took a very powerful hold +upon Herr Heinrich's imagination. "Let us now," he said, "make an +examination of every box and cupboard and drawer. Marking each as we +go...." + +When Mr. Britling went to bed that night, after a long gossip with +Carmine about the Bramo Samaj and modern developments of Indian thought +generally, the squirrel was still undiscovered. + +The worthy modern thinker undressed slowly, blew out his candle and got +into bed. Still meditating deeply upon the God of the Tagores, he thrust +his right hand under his pillow according to his usual practice, and +encountered something soft and warm and active. He shot out of bed +convulsively, lit his candle, and lifted his pillow discreetly. + +He discovered the missing Billy looking crumpled and annoyed. + +For some moments there was a lively struggle before Billy was gripped. +He chattered furiously and bit Mr. Britling twice. Then Mr. Britling was +out in the passage with the wriggling lump of warm fur in his hand, and +paddling along in the darkness to the door of Herr Heinrich. He opened +it softly. + +A startled white figure sat up in bed sharply. + +"Billy," said Mr. Britling by way of explanation, dropped his capture on +the carpet, and shut the door on the touching reunion. + + +Section 3 + +A day was to come when Mr. Britling was to go over the history of that +sunny July with incredulous minuteness, trying to trace the real +succession of events that led from the startling crime at Sarajevo to +Europe's last swift rush into war. In a sense it was untraceable; in a +sense it was so obvious that he was amazed the whole world had not +watched the coming of disaster. The plain fact of the case was that +there was no direct connection; the Sarajevo murders were dropped for +two whole weeks out of the general consciousness, they went out of the +papers, they ceased to be discussed; then they were picked up again and +used as an excuse for war. Germany, armed so as to be a threat to all +the world, weary at last of her mighty vigil, watching the course of +events, decided that her moment had come, and snatched the dead archduke +out of his grave again to serve her tremendous ambition. + +It may well have seemed to the belligerent German patriot that all her +possible foes were confused, divided within themselves, at an extremity +of distraction and impotence. The British Isles seemed slipping steadily +into civil war. Threat was met by counter-threat, violent fool competed +with violent fool for the admiration of the world, the National +Volunteers armed against the Ulster men; everything moved on with a kind +of mechanical precision from parade and meeting towards the fatal +gun-running of Howth and the first bloodshed in Dublin streets. That +wretched affray, far more than any other single thing, must have +stiffened Germany in the course she had chosen. There can be no doubt of +it; the mischief makers of Ireland set the final confirmation upon the +European war. In England itself there was a summer fever of strikes; +Liverpool was choked by a dockers' strike, the East Anglian agricultural +labourers were in revolt, and the building trade throughout the country +was on the verge of a lockout. Russia seemed to be in the crisis of a +social revolution. From Baku to St. Petersburg there were +insurrectionary movements in the towns, and on the 23rd--the very day of +the Austrian ultimatum--Cossacks were storming barbed wire entanglements +in the streets of the capital. The London Stock Exchange was in a state +of panic disorganisation because of a vast mysterious selling of +securities from abroad. And France, France it seemed was lost to all +other consideration in the enthralling confrontations and denunciations +of the Caillaux murder trial, the trial of the wife of her ex-prime +Minister for the murder of a blackmailing journalist. It was a case full +of the vulgarest sexual violence. Before so piquant a spectacle France +it seemed could have no time nor attention for the revelation of M. +Humbert, the Reporter of the Army Committee, proclaiming that the +artillery was short of ammunition, that her infantry had boots "thirty +years old" and not enough of those.... + +Such were the appearances of things. Can it be wondered if it seemed to +the German mind that the moment for the triumphant assertion of the +German predominance in the world had come? A day or so before the Dublin +shooting, the murder of Sarajevo had been dragged again into the +foreground of the world's affairs by an ultimatum from Austria to Serbia +of the extremest violence. From the hour when the ultimatum was +discharged the way to Armageddon lay wide and unavoidable before the +feet of Europe. After the Dublin conflict there was no turning back. For +a week Europe was occupied by proceedings that were little more than the +recital of a formula. Austria could not withdraw her unqualified threats +without admitting error and defeat, Russia could not desert Serbia +without disgrace, Germany stood behind Austria, France was bound to +Russia by a long confederacy of mutual support, and it was impossible +for England to witness the destruction of France or the further +strengthening of a loud and threatening rival. It may be that Germany +counted on Russia giving way to her, it may be she counted on the +indecisions and feeble perplexities of England, both these possibilities +were in the reckoning, but chiefly she counted on war. She counted on +war, and since no nation in all the world had ever been so fully +prepared in every way for war as she was, she also counted on victory. + +One writes "Germany." That is how one writes of nations, as though they +had single brains and single purposes. But indeed while Mr. Britling lay +awake and thought of his son and Lady Frensham and his smashed +automobile and Mrs. Harrowdean's trick of abusive letter-writing and of +God and evil and a thousand perplexities, a multitude of other brains +must also have been busy, lying also in beds or sitting in studies or +watching in guard-rooms or chatting belatedly in cafes or smoking-rooms +or pacing the bridges of battleships or walking along in city or +country, upon this huge possibility the crime of Sarajevo had just +opened, and of the state of the world in relation to such possibilities. +Few women, one guesses, heeded what was happening, and of the men, the +men whose decision to launch that implacable threat turned the destinies +of the world to war, there is no reason to believe that a single one of +them had anything approaching the imaginative power needed to understand +fully what it was they were doing. We have looked for an hour or so into +the seething pot of Mr. Britling's brain and marked its multiple +strands, its inconsistencies, its irrational transitions. It was but a +specimen. Nearly every brain of the select few that counted in this +cardinal determination of the world's destinies, had its streak of +personal motive, its absurd and petty impulses and deflections. One man +decided to say _this_ because if he said _that_ he would contradict +something he had said and printed four or five days ago; another took a +certain line because so he saw his best opportunity of putting a rival +into a perplexity. It would be strange if one could reach out now and +recover the states of mind of two such beings as the German Kaiser and +his eldest son as Europe stumbled towards her fate through the long days +and warm, close nights of that July. Here was the occasion for which so +much of their lives had been but the large pretentious preparation, +coming right into their hands to use or forgo, here was the opportunity +that would put them into the very forefront of history forever; this +journalist emperor with the paralysed arm, this common-fibred, sly, +lascivious son. It is impossible that they did not dream of glory over +all the world, of triumphant processions, of a world-throne that would +outshine Caesar's, of a godlike elevation, of acting Divus Caesar while +yet alive. And being what they were they must have imagined spectators, +and the young man, who was after all a young man of particularly poor +quality, imagined no doubt certain women onlookers, certain humiliated +and astonished friends, and thought of the clothes he would wear and +the gestures he would make. The nickname his English cousins had given +this heir to all the glories was the "White Rabbit." He was the backbone +of the war party at court. And presently he stole bric-a-brac. That will +help posterity to the proper values of things in 1914. And the Teutonic +generals and admirals and strategists with their patient and perfect +plans, who were so confident of victory, each within a busy skull must +have enacted anticipatory dreams of his personal success and marshalled +his willing and unwilling admirers. Readers of histories and memoirs as +most of this class of men are, they must have composed little eulogistic +descriptions of the part themselves were to play in the opening drama, +imagined pleasing vindications and interesting documents. Some of them +perhaps saw difficulties, but few foresaw failure. For all this set of +brains the thing came as a choice to take or reject; they could make war +or prevent it. And they chose war. + +It is doubtful if any one outside the directing intelligence of Germany +and Austria saw anything so plain. The initiative was with Germany. The +Russian brains and the French brains and the British brains, the few +that were really coming round to look at this problem squarely, had a +far less simple set of problems and profounder uncertainties. To Mr. +Britling's mind the Round Table Conference at Buckingham Palace was +typical of the disunion and indecision that lasted up to the very +outbreak of hostilities. The solemn violence of Sir Edward Carson was +intensely antipathetic to Mr. Britling, and in his retrospective +inquiries he pictured to himself that dark figure with its dropping +under-lip, seated, heavy and obstinate, at that discussion, still +implacable though the King had but just departed after a little speech +that was packed with veiled intimations of imminent danger... + +Mr. Britling had no mercy in his mind for the treason of obstinate +egotism and for persistence in a mistaken course. His own temperamental +weaknesses lay in such different directions. He was always ready to +leave one trail for another; he was always open to conviction, trusting +to the essentials of his character for an ultimate consistency. He hated +Carson in those days as a Scotch terrier might hate a bloodhound, as +something at once more effective and impressive, and exasperatingly, +infinitely less intelligent. + + +Section 4 + +Thus--a vivid fact as yet only in a few hundred skulls or so--the vast +catastrophe of the Great War gathered behind the idle, dispersed and +confused spectacle of an indifferent world, very much as the storms and +rains of late September gathered behind the glow and lassitudes of +August, and with scarcely more of set human intention. For the greater +part of mankind the European international situation was at most +something in the papers, no more important than the political +disturbances in South Africa, where the Herzogites were curiously +uneasy, or the possible trouble between Turkey and Greece. The things +that really interested people in England during the last months of peace +were boxing and the summer sales. A brilliant young Frenchman, +Carpentier, who had knocked out Bombardier Wells, came over again to +defeat Gunboat Smith, and did so to the infinite delight of France and +the whole Latin world, amidst the generous applause of Anglo-Saxondom. +And there was also a British triumph over the Americans at polo, and a +lively and cultured newspaper discussion about a proper motto for the +arms of the London County Council. The trial of Madame Caillaux filled +the papers with animated reports and vivid pictures; Gregori Rasputin +was stabbed and became the subject of much lively gossip about the +Russian Court; and Ulivi, the Italian impostor who claimed he could +explode mines by means of an "ultra-red" ray, was exposed and fled with +a lady, very amusingly. For a few days all the work at Woolwich Arsenal +was held up because a certain Mr. Entwhistle, having refused to erect a +machine on a concrete bed laid down by non-unionists, was rather +uncivilly dismissed, and the Irish trouble pounded along its tiresome +mischievous way. People gave a divided attention to these various +topics, and went about their individual businesses. + +And at Dower House they went about their businesses. Mr. Direck's arm +healed rapidly; Cecily Corner and he talked of their objects in life and +Utopias and the books of Mr. Britling, and he got down from a London +bookseller Baedeker's guides for Holland and Belgium, South Germany and +Italy; Herr Heinrich after some doubt sent in his application form and +his preliminary deposit for the Esperanto Conference at Boulogne, and +Billy consented to be stroked three times but continued to bite with +great vigour and promptitude. And the trouble about Hugh, Mr. Britling's +eldest son, resolved itself into nothing of any vital importance, and +settled itself very easily. + + +Section 5 + +After Hugh had cleared things up and gone back to London Mr. Britling +was inclined to think that such a thing as apprehension was a sin +against the general fairness and integrity of life. + +Of all things in the world Hugh was the one that could most easily rouse +Mr. Britling's unhappy aptitude for distressing imaginations. Hugh was +nearer by far to his heart and nerves than any other creature. In the +last few years Mr. Britling, by the light of a variety of emotional +excursions in other directions, had been discovering this. Whatever Mr. +Britling discovered he talked about; he had evolved from his realisation +of this tenderness, which was without an effort so much tenderer than +all the subtle and tremendous feelings he had attempted in +his--excursions, the theory that he had expounded to Mr. Direck that it +is only through our children that we are able to achieve disinterested +love, real love. But that left unexplained that far more intimate +emotional hold of Hugh than of his very jolly little step-brothers. That +was a fact into which Mr. Britling rather sedulously wouldn't look.... + +Mr. Britling was probably much franker and more open-eyed with himself +and the universe than a great number of intelligent people, and yet +there were quite a number of aspects of his relations with his wife, +with people about him, with his country and God and the nature of +things, upon which he turned his back with an attentive persistence. But +a back too resolutely turned may be as indicative as a pointing finger, +and in this retrogressive way, and tacitly even so far as his formal +thoughts, his unspoken comments, went, Mr. Britling knew that he loved +his son because he had lavished the most hope and the most imagination +upon him, because he was the one living continuation of that dear life +with Mary, so lovingly stormy at the time, so fine now in memory, that +had really possessed the whole heart of Mr. Britling. The boy had been +the joy and marvel of the young parents; it was incredible to them that +there had ever been a creature so delicate and sweet, and they brought +considerable imagination and humour to the detailed study of his minute +personality and to the forecasting of his future. Mr. Britling's mind +blossomed with wonderful schemes for his education. All that mental +growth no doubt contributed greatly to Mr. Britling's peculiar +affection, and with it there interwove still tenderer and subtler +elements, for the boy had a score of Mary's traits. But there were other +things still more conspicuously ignored. One silent factor in the slow +widening of the breach between Edith and Mr. Britling was her cool +estimate of her stepson. She was steadfastly kind to this shock-headed, +untidy little dreamer, he was extremely well cared for in her hands, she +liked him and she was amused by him--it is difficult to imagine what +more Mr. Britling could have expected--but it was as plain as daylight +that she felt that this was not the child she would have cared to have +borne. It was quite preposterous and perfectly natural that this should +seem to Mr. Britling to be unfair to Hugh. + +Edith's home was more prosperous than Mary's; she brought her own money +to it; the bringing up of her children was a far more efficient business +than Mary's instinctive proceedings. Hugh had very nearly died in his +first year of life; some summer infection had snatched at him; that had +tied him to his father's heart by a knot of fear; but no infection had +ever come near Edith's own nursery. And it was Hugh that Mr. Britling +had seen, small and green-faced and pitiful under an anaesthetic for +some necessary small operation to his adenoids. His younger children had +never stabbed to Mr. Britling's heart with any such pitifulness; they +were not so thin-skinned as their elder brother, not so assailable by +the little animosities of dust and germ. And out of such things as this +evolved a shapeless cloud of championship for Hugh. Jealousies and +suspicions are latent in every human relationship. We go about the +affairs of life pretending magnificently that they are not so, +pretending to the generosities we desire. And in all step-relationships +jealousy and suspicion are not merely latent, they stir. + +It was Mr. Britling's case for Hugh that he was something exceptional, +something exceptionally good, and that the peculiar need there was to +take care of him was due to a delicacy of nerve and fibre that was +ultimately a virtue. The boy was quick, quick to hear, quick to move, +very accurate in his swift way, he talked unusually soon, he began to +sketch at an early age with an incurable roughness and a remarkable +expressiveness. That he was sometimes ungainly, often untidy, that he +would become so mentally preoccupied as to be uncivil to people about +him, that he caught any malaise that was going, was all a part of that. +The sense of Mrs. Britling's unexpressed criticisms, the implied +contrasts with the very jolly, very uninspired younger family, kept up +a nervous desire in Mr. Britling for evidences and manifestations of +Hugh's quality. Not always with happy results; it caused much mutual +irritation, but not enough to prevent the growth of a real response on +Hugh's part to his father's solicitude. The youngster knew and felt that +his father was his father just as certainly as he felt that Mrs. +Britling was not his mother. To his father he brought his successes and +to his father he appealed. + +But he brought his successes more readily than he brought his troubles. +So far as he himself was concerned he was disposed to take a humorous +view of the things that went wrong and didn't come off with him, but as +a "Tremendous Set-Down for the Proud Parent" they resisted humorous +treatment.... + +Now the trouble that he had been hesitating to bring before his father +was concerned with that very grave interest of the young, his Object in +Life. It had nothing to do with those erotic disturbances that had +distressed his father's imagination. Whatever was going on below the +surface of Hugh's smiling or thoughtful presence in that respect had +still to come to the surface and find expression. But he was bothered +very much by divergent strands in his own intellectual composition. Two +sets of interests pulled at him, one--it will seem a dry interest to +many readers, but for Hugh it glittered and fascinated--was +crystallography and molecular physics; the other was caricature. Both +aptitudes sprang no doubt from the same exceptional sensitiveness to +form. As a schoolboy he exercised both very happily, but now he was +getting to the age of specialisation, and he was fluctuating very much +between science and art. After a spell of scientific study he would come +upon a fatigue period and find nothing in life but absurdities and a +lark that one could represent very amusingly; after a bout of funny +drawings his mind went back to his light and crystals and films like a +Magdalen repenting in a church. After his public school he had refused +Cambridge and gone to University College, London, to work under the +great and inspiring Professor Cardinal; simultaneously Cardinal had been +arranging to go to Cambridge, and Hugh had scarcely embarked upon his +London work when Cardinal was succeeded by the dull, conscientious and +depressing Pelkingham, at whose touch crystals became as puddings, +bubble films like cotton sheets, transparency vanished from the world, +and X rays dwarfed and died. And Hugh degenerated immediately into a +scoffing trifler who wished to give up science for art. + +He gave up science for art after grave consultation with his father, and +the real trouble that had been fretting him, it seemed, was that now he +repented and wanted to follow Cardinal to Cambridge, and--a year +lost--go on with science again. He felt it was a discreditable +fluctuation; he knew it would be a considerable expense; and so he took +two weeks before he could screw himself up to broaching the matter. + +"So _that_ is all," said Mr. Britling, immensely relieved. + +"My dear Parent, you didn't think I had backed a bill or forged a +cheque?" + +"I thought you might have married a chorus girl or something of that +sort," said Mr. Britling. + +"Or bought a large cream-coloured motor-car for her on the instalment +system, which she'd smashed up. No, that sort of thing comes later.... +I'll just put myself down on the waiting list of one of those bits of +delight in the Cambridge tobacco shops--and go on with my studies for a +year or two...." + + +Section 6 + +Though Mr. Britling's anxiety about his son was dispelled, his mind +remained curiously apprehensive throughout July. He had a feeling that +things were not going well with the world, a feeling he tried in vain to +dispel by various distractions. Perhaps some subtler subconscious +analysis of the situation was working out probabilities that his +conscious self would not face. And when presently he bicycled off to +Mrs. Harrowdean for flattery, amusement, and comfort generally, he found +her by no means the exalting confirmation of everything he wished to +believe about himself and the universe, that had been her delightful +role in the early stages of their romantic friendship. She maintained +her hostility to Edith; she seemed bent on making things impossible. And +yet there were one or two phases of the old sustaining intimacies. + +They walked across her absurd little park to the summer-house with the +view on the afternoon of his arrival, and they discussed the Irish +pamphlet which was now nearly finished. + +"Of course," she said, "it will be a wonderful pamphlet." + +There was a reservation in her voice that made him wait. + +"But I suppose all sorts of people could write an Irish pamphlet. Nobody +but you could write 'The Silent Places.' Oh, _why_ don't you finish that +great beautiful thing, and leave all this world of reality and +newspapers, all these Crude, Vulgar, Quarrelsome, Jarring things to +other people? You have the magic gift, you might be a poet, you can take +us out of all these horrid things that are, away to Beautyland, and you +are just content to be a critic and a disputer. It's your surroundings. +It's your sordid realities. It's that Practicality at your elbow. You +ought never to see a newspaper. You ought never to have an American come +within ten miles of you. You ought to live on bowls of milk drunk in +valleys of asphodel." + +Mr. Britling, who liked this sort of thing in a way, and yet at the same +time felt ridiculously distended and altogether preposterous while it +was going on, answered feebly and self-consciously. + +"There was your letter in the _Nation_ the other day," she said. "Why +_do_ you get drawn into arguments? I wanted to rush into the _Nation_ +and pick you up and wipe the anger off you, and carry you out of it +all--into some quiet beautiful place." + +"But one _has_ to answer these people," said Mr. Britling, rolling along +by the side of her like a full moon beside Venus, and quite artlessly +falling in with the tone of her. + +She repeated lines from "The Silent Places" from memory. She threw quite +wonderful emotion into her voice. She made the words glow. And he had +only shown her the thing once.... + +Was he indeed burying a marvellous gift under the dust of current +affairs? When at last in the warm evening light they strolled back from +the summer-house to dinner he had definitely promised her that he would +take up and finish "The Silent Places."... And think over the Irish +pamphlet again before he published it.... + +Pyecrafts was like a crystal casket of finer soil withdrawn from the +tarred highways of the earth.... + +And yet the very next day this angel enemy of controversies broke out in +the most abominable way about Edith, and he had to tell her more plainly +than he had done hitherto, that he could not tolerate that sort of +thing. He wouldn't have Edith guyed. He wouldn't have Edith made to seem +base. And at that there was much trouble between them, and tears and +talk of Oliver.... + +Mr. Britling found himself unable to get on either with "The Silent +Places" or the pamphlet, and he was very unhappy.... + +Afterwards she repented very touchingly, and said that if only he would +love her she would swallow a thousand Ediths. He waived a certain +disrespect in the idea of her swallowing Edith, and they had a beautiful +reconciliation and talked of exalted things, and in the evening he +worked quite well upon "The Silent Places" and thought of half-a-dozen +quite wonderful lines, and in the course of the next day he returned to +Dower House and Mr. Direck and considerable piles of correspondence and +the completion of the Irish pamphlet. + +But he was restless. He was more restless in his house than he had ever +been. He could not understand it. Everything about him was just as it +had always been, and yet it was unsatisfactory, and it seemed more +unstable than anything had ever seemed before. He was bored by the +solemn development of the Irish dispute; he was irritated by the +smouldering threat of the Balkans; he was irritated by the suffragettes +and by a string of irrational little strikes; by the general absence of +any main plot as it were to hold all these wranglings and trivialities +together.... At the Dower House the most unpleasant thoughts would come +to him. He even had doubts whether in "The Silent Places," he had been +plagiarising, more or less unconsciously, from Henry James's "Great Good +Place."... + +On the twenty-first of July Gladys came back repaired and looking none +the worse for her misadventure. Next day he drove her very carefully +over to Pyecrafts, hoping to drug his uneasiness with the pretence of a +grand passion and the praises of "The Silent Places," that beautiful +work of art that was so free from any taint of application, and alas! he +found Mrs. Harrowdean in an evil mood. He had been away from her for ten +days--ten whole days. No doubt Edith had manoeuvred to keep him. She +hadn't! _Hadn't_ she? How was he, poor simple soul! to tell that she +hadn't? That was the prelude to a stormy afternoon. + +The burthen of Mrs. Harrowdean was that she was wasting her life, that +she was wasting the poor, good, patient Oliver's life, that for the sake +of friendship she was braving the worst imputations and that he treated +her cavalierly, came when he wished to do so, stayed away heartlessly, +never thought she needed _little_ treats, _little_ attentions, _little_ +presents. Did he think she could settle down to her poor work, such as +it was, in neglect and loneliness? He forgot women were dear little +tender things, and had to be made happy and _kept_ happy. Oliver might +not be clever and attractive but he did at least in his clumsy way +understand and try and do his duty.... + +Towards the end of the second hour of such complaints the spirit of Mr. +Britling rose in revolt. He lifted up his voice against her, he charged +his voice with indignant sorrow and declared that he had come over to +Pyecrafts with no thought in his mind but sweet and loving thoughts, +that he had but waited for Gladys to be ready before he came, that he +had brought over the manuscript of "The Silent Places" with him to +polish and finish up, that "for days and days" he had been longing to do +this in the atmosphere of the dear old summer-house with its distant +view of the dear old sea, and that now all that was impossible, that +Mrs. Harrowdean had made it impossible and that indeed she was rapidly +making everything impossible.... + +And having delivered himself of this judgment Mr. Britling, a little +surprised at the rapid vigour of his anger, once he had let it loose, +came suddenly to an end of his words, made a renunciatory gesture with +his arms, and as if struck with the idea, rushed out of her room and out +of the house to where Gladys stood waiting. He got into her and started +her up, and after some trouble with the gear due to the violence of his +emotion, he turned her round and departed with her--crushing the corner +of a small bed of snapdragon as he turned--and dove her with a sulky +sedulousness back to the Dower House and newspapers and correspondence +and irritations, and that gnawing and irrational sense of a hollow and +aimless quality in the world that he had hoped Mrs. Harrowdean would +assuage. And the further he went from Mrs. Harrowdean the harsher and +unjuster it seemed to him that he had been to her. + +But he went on because he did not see how he could very well go back. + + +Section 7 + +Mr. Direck's broken wrist healed sooner than he desired. From the first +he had protested that it was the sort of thing that one can carry about +in a sling, that he was quite capable of travelling about and taking +care of himself in hotels, that he was only staying on at Matching's +Easy because he just loved to stay on and wallow in Mrs. Britling's +kindness and Mr. Britling's company. While as a matter of fact he +wallowed as much as he could in the freshness and friendliness of Miss +Cecily Corner, and for more than a third of this period Mr. Britling was +away from home altogether. + +Mr. Direck, it should be clear by this time, was a man of more than +European simplicity and directness, and his intentions towards the young +lady were as simple and direct and altogether honest as such intentions +can be. It is the American conception of gallantry more than any other +people's, to let the lady call the tune in these affairs; the man's +place is to be protective, propitiatory, accommodating and clever, and +the lady's to be difficult but delightful until he catches her and +houses her splendidly and gives her a surprising lot of pocket-money, +and goes about his business; and upon these assumptions Mr. Direck went +to work. But quite early it was manifest to him that Cecily did not +recognise his assumptions. She was embarrassed when he got down one or +two little presents of chocolates and flowers for her from London--the +Britling boys were much more appreciative--she wouldn't let him contrive +costly little expeditions for her, and she protested against compliments +and declared she would stay away when he paid them. And she was not +contented by his general sentiments about life, but asked the most +direct questions about his occupation and his activities. His chief +occupation was being the well provided heir of a capable lawyer, and +his activities in the light of her inquiries struck him as being light +and a trifle amateurish, qualities he had never felt as any drawback +about them before. So that he had to rely rather upon aspirations and +the possibility, under proper inspiration, of a more actively +serviceable life in future. + +"There's a feeling in the States," he said, "that we've had rather a +tendency to overdo work, and that there is scope for a leisure class to +develop the refinement and the wider meanings of life." + +"But a leisure class doesn't mean a class that does nothing," said +Cecily. "It only means a class that isn't busy in business." + +"You're too hard on me," said Mr. Direck with that quiet smile of his. + +And then by way of putting her on the defensive he asked her what she +thought a man in his position ought to do. + +"_Something_," she said, and in the expansion of this vague demand they +touched on a number of things. She said that she was a Socialist, and +there was still in Mr. Direck's composition a streak of the +old-fashioned American prejudice against the word. He associated +Socialists with Anarchists and deported aliens. It was manifest too that +she was deeply read in the essays and dissertations of Mr. Britling. She +thought everybody, man or woman, ought to be chiefly engaged in doing +something definite for the world at large. ("There's my secretaryship of +the Massachusetts Modern Thought Society, anyhow," said Mr. Direck.) And +she herself wanted to be doing something--it was just because she did +not know what it was she ought to be doing that she was reading so +extensively and voraciously. She wanted to lose herself in something. +Deep in the being of Mr. Direck was the conviction that what she ought +to be doing was making love in a rapturously egotistical manner, and +enjoying every scrap of her own delightful self and her own delightful +vitality--while she had it, but for the purposes of their conversation +he did not care to put it any more definitely than to say that he +thought we owed it to ourselves to develop our personalities. Upon which +she joined issue with great vigour. + +"That is just what Mr. Britling says about you in his 'American +Impressions,'" she said. "He says that America overdoes the development +of personalities altogether, that whatever else is wrong about America +that is where America is most clearly wrong. I read that this morning, +and directly I read it I thought, 'Yes, that's exactly it! Mr. Direck is +overdoing the development of personalities.'" + +"Me!" + +"Yes. I like talking to you and I don't like talking to you. And I see +now it is because you keep on talking of my Personality and your +Personality. That makes me uncomfortable. It's like having some one +following me about with a limelight. And in a sort of way I do like it. +I like it and I'm flattered by it, and then I go off and dislike it, +dislike the effect of it. I find myself trying to be what you have told +me I am--sort of acting myself. I want to glance at looking-glasses to +see if I am keeping it up. It's just exactly what Mr. Britling says in +his book about American women. They act themselves, he says; they get a +kind of story and explanation about themselves and they are always +trying to make it perfectly plain and clear to every one. Well, when you +do that you can't think nicely of other things." + +"We like a clear light on people," said Mr. Direck. + +"We don't. I suppose we're shadier," said Cecily. + +"You're certainly much more in half-tones," said Mr. Direck. "And I +confess it's the half-tones get hold of me. But still you haven't told +me, Miss Cissie, what you think I ought to do with myself. Here I am, +you see, very much at your disposal. What sort of business do you think +it's my duty to go in for?" + +"That's for some one with more experience than I have, to tell you. You +should ask Mr. Britling." + +"I'd rather have it from you." + +"I don't even know for myself," she said. + +"So why shouldn't we start to find out together?" he asked. + +It was her tantalising habit to ignore all such tentatives. + +"One can't help the feeling that one is in the world for something more +than oneself," she said.... + + +Section 8 + +Soon Mr. Direck could measure the time that was left to him at the Dower +House no longer by days but by hours. His luggage was mostly packed, his +tickets to Rotterdam, Cologne, Munich, Dresden, Vienna, were all in +order. And things were still very indefinite between him and Cecily. But +God has not made Americans clean-shaven and firm-featured for nothing, +and he determined that matters must be brought to some sort of +definition before he embarked upon travels that were rapidly losing +their attractiveness in this concentration of his attention.... + +A considerable nervousness betrayed itself in his voice and manner when +at last he carried out his determination. + +"There's just a lil' thing," he said to her, taking advantage of a +moment when they were together after lunch, "that I'd value now more +than anything else in the world." + +She answered by a lifted eyebrow and a glance that had not so much +inquiry in it as she intended. + +"If we could just take a lil' walk together for a bit. Round by +Claverings Park and all that. See the deer again and the old trees. Sort +of scenery I'd like to remember when I'm away from it." + +He was a little short of breath, and there was a quite disproportionate +gravity about her moment for consideration. + +"Yes," she said with a cheerful acquiescence that came a couple of bars +too late. "Let's. It will be jolly." + +"These fine English afternoons are wonderful afternoons," he remarked +after a moment or so of silence. "Not quite the splendid blaze we get in +our summer, but--sort of glowing." + +"It's been very fine all the time you've been here," she said.... + +After which exchanges they went along the lane, into the road by the +park fencing, and so to the little gate that lets one into the park, +without another word. + +The idea took hold of Mr. Direck's mind that until they got through the +park gate it would be quite out of order to say anything. The lane and +the road and the stile and the gate were all so much preliminary stuff +to be got through before one could get to business. But after the little +white gate the way was clear, the park opened out and one could get +ahead without bothering about the steering. And Mr. Direck had, he felt, +been diplomatically involved in lanes and by-ways long enough. + +"Well," he said as he rejoined her after very carefully closing the +gate. "What I really wanted was an opportunity of just mentioning +something that happens to be of interest to you--if it does happen to +interest you.... I suppose I'd better put the thing as simply as +possible.... Practically.... I'm just right over the head and all in +love with you.... I thought I'd like to tell you...." + +Immense silences. + +"Of course I won't pretend there haven't been others," Mr. Direck +suddenly resumed. "There have. One particularly. But I can assure you +I've never felt the depth and height or anything like the sort of Quiet +Clear Conviction.... And now I'm just telling you these things, Miss +Corner, I don't know whether it will interest you if I tell you that +you're really and truly the very first love I ever had as well as my +last. I've had sent over--I got it only yesterday--this lil' photograph +of a miniature portrait of one of my ancestor's relations--a Corner just +as you are. It's here...." + +He had considerable difficulties with his pockets and papers. Cecily, +mute and flushed and inconvenienced by a preposterous and unaccountable +impulse to weep, took the picture he handed her. + +"When I was a lil' fellow of fifteen," said Mr. Direck in the tone of +one producing a melancholy but conclusive piece of evidence, "I +_worshipped_ that miniature. It seemed to me--the loveliest person.... +And--it's just you...." + +He too was preposterously moved. + +It seemed a long time before Cecily had anything to say, and then what +she had to say she said in a softened, indistinct voice. "You're very +kind," she said, and kept hold of the little photograph. + +They had halted for the photograph. Now they walked on again. + +"I thought I'd like to tell you," said Mr. Direck and became +tremendously silent. + +Cecily found him incredibly difficult to answer. She tried to make +herself light and offhand, and to be very frank with him. + +"Of course," she said, "I knew--I felt somehow--you meant to say +something of this sort to me--when you asked me to come with you--" + +"Well?" he said. + +"And I've been trying to make my poor brain think of something to say to +you." + +She paused and contemplated her difficulties.... + +"Couldn't you perhaps say something of the same kind--such as I've been +trying to say?" said Mr. Direck presently, with a note of earnest +helpfulness. "I'd be very glad if you could." + +"Not exactly," said Cecily, more careful than ever. + +"Meaning?" + +"I think you know that you are the best of friends. I think you are, +oh--a Perfect Dear." + +"Well--that's all right--so far." + +"That _is_ as far." + +"You don't know whether you love me? That's what you mean to say." + +"No.... I feel somehow it isn't that.... Yet...." + +"There's nobody else by any chance?" + +"No." Cecily weighed things. "You needn't trouble about that." + +"Only ... only you don't know." + +Cecily made a movement of assent. + +"It's no good pretending I haven't thought about you," she said. + +"Well, anyhow I've done my best to give you the idea," said Mr. Direck. +"I seem now to have been doing that pretty nearly all the time." + +"Only what should we do?" + +Mr. Direck felt this question was singularly artless. "Why!--we'd +marry," he said. "And all that sort of thing." + +"Letty has married--and all that sort of thing," said Cecily, fixing her +eye on him very firmly because she was colouring brightly. "And it +doesn't leave Letty very much--forrader." + +"Well now, they have a good time, don't they? I'd have thought they have +a lovely time!" + +"They've had a lovely time. And Teddy is the dearest husband. And they +have a sweet little house and a most amusing baby. And they play hockey +every Sunday. And Teddy does his work. And every week is like every +other week. It is just heavenly. Just always the same heavenly. Every +Sunday there is a fresh week of heavenly beginning. And this, you see, +isn't heaven; it is earth. And they don't know it but they are getting +bored. I have been watching them, and they are getting dreadfully bored. +It's heart-breaking to watch, because they are almost my dearest people. +Teddy used to be making perpetual jokes about the house and the baby and +his work and Letty, and now--he's made all the possible jokes. It's only +now and then he gets a fresh one. It's like spring flowers and +then--summer. And Letty sits about and doesn't sing. They want something +new to happen.... And there's Mr. and Mrs. Britling. They love each +other. Much more than Mrs. Britling dreams, or Mr. Britling for the +matter of that. Once upon a time things were heavenly for them too, I +suppose. Until suddenly it began to happen to them that nothing new ever +happened...." + +"Well," said Mr. Direck, "people can travel." + +"But that isn't _real_ happening," said Cecily. + +"It keeps one interested." + +"But real happening is doing something." + +"You come back to that," said Mr. Direck. "I never met any one before +who'd quite got that spirit as you have it. I wouldn't alter it. It's +part of you. It's part of this place. It's what Mr. Britling always +seems to be saying and never quite knowing he's said it. It's just as +though all the things that are going on weren't the things that ought to +be going on--but something else quite different. Somehow one falls into +it. It's as if your daily life didn't matter, as if politics didn't +matter, as if the King and the social round and business and all those +things weren't anything really, and as though you felt there was +something else--out of sight--round the corner--that you ought to be +getting at. Well, I admit, that's got hold of me too. And it's all mixed +up with my idea of you. I don't see that there's really a contradiction +in it at all. I'm in love with you, all my heart's in love with you, +what's the good of being shy about it? I'd just die for your littlest +wish right here now, it's just as though I'd got love in my veins +instead of blood, but that's not taking me away from that other thing. +It's bringing me round to that other thing. I feel as if without you I +wasn't up to anything at all, but _with_ you--We'd not go settling down +in a cottage or just touring about with a Baedeker Guide or anything of +that kind. Not for long anyhow. We'd naturally settle down side by side +and _do_ ..." + +"But what should we do?" asked Cecily. + +There came a hiatus in their talk. + +Mr. Direck took a deep breath. + +"You see that old felled tree there. I was sitting on it the day before +yesterday and thinking of you. Will you come there and sit with me on +it? When you sit on it you get a view, oh! a perfectly lovely English +view, just a bit of the house and those clumps of trees and the valley +away there with the lily pond. I'd love to have you in my memory of +it...." + +They sat down, and Mr. Direck opened his case. He was shy and clumsy +about opening it, because he had been thinking dreadfully hard about it, +and he hated to seem heavy or profound or anything but artless and +spontaneous to Cecily. And he felt even when he did open his case that +the effect of it was platitudinous and disappointing. Yet when he had +thought it out it had seemed very profound and altogether living. + +"You see one doesn't want to use terms that have been used in a thousand +different senses in any way that isn't a perfectly unambiguous sense, +and at the same time one doesn't want to seem to be canting about things +or pitching anything a note or two higher than it ought legitimately to +go, but it seems to me that this sort of something that Mr. Britling is +always asking for in his essays and writings and things, and what you +are looking for just as much and which seems so important to you that +even love itself is a secondary kind of thing until you can square the +two together, is nothing more nor less than Religion--I don't mean this +Religion or that Religion but just Religion itself, a Big, Solemn, +Comprehensive Idea that holds you and me and all the world together in +one great, grand universal scheme. And though it isn't quite the sort of +idea of love-making that's been popular--well, in places like +Carrierville--for some time, it's the right idea; it's got to be +followed out if we don't want love-making to be a sort of idle, +troublesome game of treats and flatteries that is sure as anything to +lead right away to disappointments and foolishness and unfaithfulness +and--just Hell. What you are driving at, according to my interpretation, +is that marriage has got to be a religious marriage or else you are +splitting up life, that religion and love are most of life and all the +power there is in it, and that they can't afford to be harnessed in two +different directions.... I never had these ideas until I came here and +met you, but they come up now in my mind as though they had always been +there.... And that's why you don't want to marry in a hurry. And that's +why I'm glad almost that you don't want to marry in a hurry." + +He considered. "That's why I'll have to go on to Germany and just let +both of us turn things over in our minds." + +"Yes," said Cecily, weighing his speech. "_I_ think that is it. I think +that I do want a religious marriage, and that what is wrong with Teddy +and Letty is that they aren't religious. They pretend they are religious +somewhere out of sight and round the corner.... Only--" + +He considered her gravely. + +"What _is_ Religion?" she asked. + +Here again there was a considerable pause. + +"Very nearly two-thirds of the papers read before our Massachusetts +society since my connection with it, have dealt with that very +question," Mr. Direck began. "And one of our most influential members +was able to secure the services of a very able and highly trained young +woman from Michigan University, to make a digest of all these +representative utterances. We are having it printed in a thoroughly +artistic mariner, as the club book for our autumn season. The drift of +her results is that religion isn't the same thing as religions. That +most religions are old and that religion is always new.... Well, putting +it simply, religion is the perpetual rediscovery of that Great Thing Out +There.... What the Great Thing is goes by all sorts of names, but if you +know it's there and if you remember it's there, you've got religion.... +That's about how she figured it out.... I shall send you the book as +soon as a copy comes over to me.... I can't profess to put it as clearly +as she puts it. She's got a real analytical mind. But it's one of the +most suggestive lil' books I've ever seen. It just takes hold of you and +_makes_ you think." + +He paused and regarded the ground before him--thoughtfully. + +"Life," said Cecily, "has either got to be religious or else it goes to +pieces.... Perhaps anyhow it goes to pieces...." + +Mr. Direck endorsed these observations by a slow nodding of the head. + +He allowed a certain interval to elapse. Then a vaguely apprehended +purpose that had been for a time forgotten in these higher interests +came back to him. He took it up with a breathless sense of temerity. + +"Well," he said, "then you don't hate me?" + +She smiled. + +"You don't dislike me or despise me?" + +She was still reassuring. + +"You don't think I'm just a slow American sort of portent?" + +"No." + +"You think, on the whole, I might even--someday--?" + +She tried to meet his eyes with a pleasant frankness, and perhaps she +was franker than she meant to be. + +"Look here," said Mr. Direck, with a little quiver of emotion softening +his mouth. "I'll ask you something. We've got to wait. Until you feel +clearer. Still.... Could you bring yourself--? If just once--I could +kiss you.... + +"I'm going away to Germany," he went on to her silence. "But I shan't be +giving so much attention to Germany as I supposed I should when I +planned it out. But somehow--if I felt--that I'd kissed you...." + +With a delusive effect of calmness the young lady looked first over her +left shoulder and then over her right and surveyed the park about them. +Then she stood up. "We can go that way home," she said with a movement +of her head, "through the little covert." + +Mr. Direck stood up too. + +"If I was a poet or a bird," said Mr. Direck, "I should sing. But being +just a plain American citizen all I can do is just to talk about all I'd +do if I wasn't...." + +And when they had reached the little covert, with its pathway of soft +moss and its sheltering screen of interlacing branches, he broke the +silence by saying, "Well, what's wrong with right here and now?" and +Cecily stood up to him as straight as a spear, with gifts in her clear +eyes. He took her soft cool face between his trembling hands, and kissed +her sweet half-parted lips. When he kissed her she shivered, and he held +her tighter and would have kissed her again. But she broke away from +him, and he did not press her. And muter than ever, pondering deeply, +and secretly trembling in the queerest way, these two outwardly sedate +young people returned to the Dower House.... + +And after tea the taxicab from the junction came for him and he +vanished, and was last seen as a waving hat receding along the top of +the dog-rose hedge that ran beyond the hockey field towards the village. + +"He will see Germany long before I shall," said Herr Heinrich with a +gust of nostalgia. "I wish almost I had not agreed to go to Boulogne." + +And for some days Miss Cecily Corner was a very grave and dignified +young woman indeed. Pondering.... + + +Section 9 + +After the departure of Mr. Direck things international began to move +forward with great rapidity. It was exactly as if his American +deliberation had hitherto kept things waiting. Before his postcard from +Rotterdam reached the Dower House Austria had sent an ultimatum to +Serbia, and before Cecily had got the letter he wrote her from Cologne, +a letter in that curiously unformed handwriting the stenographer and the +typewriter are making an American characteristic, Russia was mobilising, +and the vast prospect of a European war had opened like the rolling up +of a curtain on which the interests of the former week had been but a +trivial embroidery. So insistent was this reality that revealed itself +that even the shooting of the Dublin people after the gun-running of +Howth was dwarfed to unimportance. The mind of Mr. Britling came round +from its restless wanderings to a more and more intent contemplation of +the hurrying storm-clouds that swept out of nothingness to blacken all +his sky. He watched it, he watched amazed and incredulous, he watched +this contradiction of all his reiterated confessions of faith in German +sanity and pacifism, he watched it with all that was impersonal in his +being, and meanwhile his personal life ran in a continually deeper and +narrower channel as his intelligence was withdrawn from it. + +Never had the double refraction of his mind been more clearly defined. +On the one hand the Britling of the disinterested intelligence saw the +habitual peace of the world vanish as the daylight vanishes when a +shutter falls over the window of a cell; and on the other the Britling +of the private life saw all the pleasant comfort of his relations with +Mrs. Harrowdean disappearing in a perplexing irrational quarrel. He did +not want to lose Mrs. Harrowdean; he contemplated their breach with a +profound and profoundly selfish dismay. It seemed the wanton termination +of an arrangement of which he was only beginning to perceive the extreme +and irreplaceable satisfactoriness. + +It wasn't that he was in love with her. He knew almost as clearly as +though he had told himself as much that he was not. But then, on the +other hand, it was equally manifest in its subdued and ignored way that +as a matter of fact she was hardly more in love with him. What +constituted the satisfactoriness of the whole affair was its essential +unlovingness and friendly want of emotion. It left their minds free to +play with all the terms and methods of love without distress. She could +summon tears and delights as one summons servants, and he could act his +part as lover with no sense of lost control. They supplied in each +other's lives a long-felt want--if only, that is, she could control her +curious aptitude for jealousy and the sexual impulse to vex. There, he +felt, she broke the convention of their relations and brought in serious +realities, and this little rift it was that had widened to a now +considerable breach. He knew that in every sane moment she dreaded and +wished to heal that breach as much as he did. But the deep simplicities +of the instincts they had tacitly agreed to bridge over washed the piers +of their reconciliation away. + +And unless they could restore the bridge things would end, and Mr. +Britling felt that the ending of things would involve for him the most +extraordinary exasperation. She would go to Oliver for comfort; she +would marry Oliver; and he knew her well enough to be sure that she +would thrust her matrimonial happiness with Oliver unsparingly upon his +attention; while he, on the other hand, being provided with no +corresponding Olivette, would be left, a sort of emotional celibate, +with his slack times and his afternoons and his general need for +flattery and amusement dreadfully upon his own hands. He would be +tormented by jealousy. In which case--and here he came to verities--his +work would suffer. It wouldn't grip him while all these vague demands +she satisfied fermented unassuaged. + +And, after the fashion of our still too adolescent world, Mr. Britling +and Mrs. Harrowdean proceeded to negotiate these extremely unromantic +matters in the phrases of that simple, honest and youthful +passionateness which is still the only language available, and at times +Mr. Britling came very near persuading himself that he had something of +the passionate love for her that he had once had for his Mary, and that +the possible loss of her had nothing to do with the convenience of +Pyecrafts or any discretion in the world. Though indeed the only thing +in the whole plexus of emotional possibility that still kept anything of +its youthful freshness in his mind was the very strong objection indeed +he felt to handing her over to anybody else in the world. And in +addition he had just a touch of fatherly feeling that a younger man +would not have had, and it made him feel very anxious to prevent her +making a fool of herself by marrying a man out of spite. He felt that +since an obstinate lover is apt to be an exacting husband, in the end +the heavy predominance of Oliver might wring much sincerer tears from +her than she had ever shed for himself. But that generosity was but the +bright edge to a mainly possessive jealousy. + +It was Mr. Britling who reopened the correspondence by writing a little +apology for the corner of the small snapdragon bed, and this evoked an +admirably touching reply. He replied quite naturally with assurances and +declarations. But before she got his second letter her mood had changed. +She decided that if he had really and truly been lovingly sorry, instead +of just writing a note to her he would have rushed over to her in a +wild, dramatic state of mind, and begged forgiveness on his knees. She +wrote therefore a second letter to this effect, crossing his second one, +and, her literary gift getting the better of her, she expanded her +thesis into a general denunciation of his habitual off-handedness with +her, to an abandonment of all hope of ever being happy with him, to a +decision to end the matter once for all, and after a decent interval of +dignified regrets to summon Oliver to the reward of his patience and +goodness. The European situation was now at a pitch to get upon Mr. +Britling's nerves, and he replied with a letter intended to be +conciliatory, but which degenerated into earnest reproaches for her +"unreasonableness." Meanwhile she had received his second and tenderly +eloquent letter; it moved her deeply, and having now cleared her mind of +much that had kept it simmering uncomfortably, she replied with a +sweetly loving epistle. From this point their correspondence had a kind +of double quality, being intermittently angry and loving; her third +letter was tender, and it was tenderly answered in his fourth; but in +the interim she had received his third and answered it with considerable +acerbity, to which his fifth was a retort, just missing her generous and +conclusive fifth. She replied to his fifth on a Saturday evening--it was +that eventful Saturday, Saturday the First of August, 1914--by a +telegram. Oliver was abroad in Holland, engaged in a much-needed +emotional rest, and she wired to Mr. Britling: "Have wired for Oliver, +he will come to me, do not trouble to answer this." + +She was astonished to get no reply for two days. She got no reply for +two days because remarkable things were happening to the telegraph wires +of England just then, and her message, in the hands of a boy scout on a +bicycle, reached Mr. Britling's house only on Monday afternoon. He was +then at Claverings discussing the invasion of Belgium that made +Britain's participation in the war inevitable, and he did not open the +little red-brown envelope until about half-past six. He failed to mark +the date and hours upon it, but he perceived that it was essentially a +challenge. He was expected, he saw, to go over at once with his +renovated Gladys and end this unfortunate clash forever in one striking +and passionate scene. His mind was now so full of the war that he found +this the most colourless and unattractive of obligations. But he felt +bound by the mysterious code of honour of the illicit love affair to +play his part. He postponed his departure until after supper--there was +no reason why he should be afraid of motoring by moonlight if he went +carefully--because Hugh came in with Cissie demanding a game of hockey. +Hockey offered a nervous refreshment, a scampering forgetfulness of the +tremendous disaster of this war he had always believed impossible, that +nothing else could do, and he was very glad indeed of the irruption.... + + +Section 10 + +For days the broader side of Mr. Britling's mind, as distinguished from +its egotistical edge, had been reflecting more and more vividly and +coherently the spectacle of civilisation casting aside the thousand +dispersed activities of peace, clutching its weapons and setting its +teeth, for a supreme struggle against militarist imperialism. From the +point of view of Matching's Easy that colossal crystallising of +accumulated antagonisms was for a time no more than a confusion of +headlines and a rearrangement of columns in the white windows of the +newspapers through which those who lived in the securities of England +looked out upon the world. It was a display in the sphere of thought and +print immeasurably remote from the real green turf on which one walked, +from the voice and the church-bells of Mr. Dimple that sounded their +ample caresses in one's ears, from the clashing of the stags who were +beginning to knock the velvet from their horns in the park, or the +clatter of the butcher's cart and the respectful greeting of the butcher +boy down the lane. It was the spectacle of the world less real even to +most imaginations than the world of novels or plays. People talked of +these things always with an underlying feeling that they romanced and +intellectualised. + +On Thursday, July 23rd, the Austro-Hungarian minister at Belgrade +presented his impossible ultimatum to the Serbian government, and +demanded a reply within forty-eight hours. With the wisdom of retrospect +we know now clearly enough what that meant. The Sarajevo crime was to be +resuscitated and made an excuse for war. But nine hundred and +ninety-nine Europeans out of a thousand had still no suspicion of what +was happening to them. The ultimatum figured prominently in the morning +papers that came to Matching's Easy on Friday, but it by no means +dominated the rest of the news; Sir Edward Carson's rejection of the +government proposals for Ulster was given the pride of place, and almost +equally conspicuous with the Serbian news were the Caillaux trial and +the storming of the St. Petersburg barricades by Cossacks. Herr +Heinrich's questions at lunch time received reassuring replies. + +On Saturday Sir Edward Carson was still in the central limelight, Russia +had intervened and demanded more time for Serbia, and the _Daily +Chronicle_ declared the day a critical one for Europe. Dublin with +bayonet charges and bullets thrust Serbia into a corner on Monday. No +shots had yet been fired in the East, and the mischief in Ireland that +Germany had counted on was well ahead. Sir Edward Grey was said to be +working hard for peace. + +"It's the cry of wolf," said Mr. Britling to Herr Heinrich. + +"But at last there did come a wolf," said Herr Heinrich. "I wish I had +not sent my first moneys to that Conference upon Esperanto. I feel sure +it will be put off." + +"See!" said Teddy very cheerfully to Herr Heinrich on Tuesday, and held +up the paper, in which "The Bloodshed in Dublin" had squeezed the "War +Cloud Lifting" into a quite subordinate position. + +"What did we tell you?" said Mrs. Britling. "Nobody wants a European +war." + +But Wednesday's paper vindicated his fears. Germany had commanded Russia +not to mobilise. + +"Of course Russia will mobilise," said Herr Heinrich. + +"Or else forever after hold her peace," said Teddy. + +"And then Germany will mobilise," said Herr Heinrich, "and all my +holiday will vanish. I shall have to go and mobilise too. I shall have +to fight. I have my papers." + +"I never thought of you as a soldier before," said Teddy. + +"I have deferred my service until I have done my thesis," said Herr +Heinrich. "Now all that will be--Piff! And my thesis three-quarters +finished." + +"That is serious," said Teddy. + +"_Verdammte Dummheit!_" said Herr Heinrich. "Why do they do such +things?" + +On Thursday, the 30th of July, Caillaux, Carson, strikes, and all the +common topics of life had been swept out of the front page of the paper +altogether; the stock exchanges were in a state of wild perturbation, +and food prices were leaping fantastically. Austria was bombarding +Belgrade, contrary to the rules of war hitherto accepted; Russia was +mobilising; Mr. Asquith was, he declared, not relaxing his efforts "to +do everything possible to circumscribe the area of possible conflict," +and the Vienna Conference of Peace Societies was postponed. "I do not +see why a conflict between Russia and Austria should involve Western +Europe," said Mr. Britling. "Our concern is only for Belgium and +France." + +But Herr Heinrich knew better. "No," he said. "It is the war. It has +come. I have heard it talked about in Germany many times. But I have +never believed that it was obliged to come. Ach! It considers no one. So +long as Esperanto is disregarded, all these things must be." + +Friday brought photographs of the mobilisation in Vienna, and the news +that Belgrade was burning. Young men in straw hats very like English or +French or Belgian young men in straw hats were shown parading the +streets of Vienna, carrying flags and banners portentously, blowing +trumpets or waving hats and shouting. Saturday saw all Europe +mobilising, and Herr Heinrich upon Teddy's bicycle in wild pursuit of +evening papers at the junction. Mobilisation and the emotions of Herr +Heinrich now became the central facts of the Dower House situation. The +two younger Britlings mobilised with great vigour upon the playroom +floor. The elder had one hundred and ninety toy soldiers with a +considerable equipment of guns and wagons; the younger had a force of a +hundred and twenty-three, not counting three railway porters (with +trucks complete), a policeman, five civilians and two ladies. Also they +made a number of British and German flags out of paper. But as neither +would allow his troops to be any existing foreign army, they agreed to +be Redland and Blueland, according to the colour of their prevailing +uniforms. Meanwhile Herr Heinrich confessed almost promiscuously the +complication of his distresses by a hitherto unexpected emotional +interest in the daughter of the village publican. She was a placid +receptive young woman named Maud Hickson, on whom the young man had, it +seemed, imposed the more poetical name of Marguerite. + +"Often we have spoken together, oh yes, often," he assured Mrs. +Britling. "And now it must all end. She loves flowers, she loves birds. +She is most sweet and innocent. I have taught her many words in German +and several times I have tried to draw her in pencil, and now I must go +away and never see her any more." + +His implicit appeal to the whole literature of Teutonic romanticism +disarmed Mrs. Britling's objection that he had no business whatever to +know the young woman at all. + +"Also," cried Herr Heinrich, facing another aspect of his distresses, +"how am I to pack my things? Since I have been here I have bought many +things, many books, and two pairs of white flannel trousers and some +shirts and a tin instrument that I cannot work, for developing privately +Kodak films. All this must go into my little portmanteau. And it will +not go into my little portmanteau! + +"And there is Billy! Who will now go on with the education of Billy?" + +The hands of fate paused not for Herr Heinrich's embarrassments and +distresses. He fretted from his room downstairs and back to his room, he +went out upon mysterious and futile errands towards the village inn, he +prowled about the garden. His head and face grew pinker and pinker; his +eyes were flushed and distressed. Everybody sought to say and do kind +and reassuring things to him. + +"Ach!" he said to Teddy; "you are a civilian. You live in a free +country. It is not your war. You can be amused at it...." + +But then Teddy was amused at everything. + +Something but very dimly apprehended at Matching's Easy, something +methodical and compelling away in London, seemed to be fumbling and +feeling after Herr Heinrich, and Herr Heinrich it appeared was +responding. Sunday's post brought the decision. + +"I have to go," he said. "I must go right up to London to-day. To an +address in Bloomsbury. Then they will tell me how to go to Germany. I +must pack and I must get the taxi-cab from the junction and I must go. +Why are there no trains on the branch line on Sundays for me to go by +it?" + +At lunch he talked politics. "I am entirely opposed to the war," he +said. "I am entirely opposed to any war." + +"Then why go?" asked Mr. Britling. "Stay here with us. We all like you. +Stay here and do not answer your mobilisation summons." + +"But then I shall lose all my country. I shall lose my papers. I shall +be outcast. I must go." + +"I suppose a man should go with his own country," Mr. Britling +reflected. + +"If there was only one language in all the world, none of such things +would happen," Herr Heinrich declared. "There would be no English, no +Germans, no Russians." + +"Just Esperantists," said Teddy. + +"Or Idoists," said Herr Heinrich. "I am not convinced of which. In some +ways Ido is much better." + +"Perhaps there would have to be a war between Ido and Esperanto to +settle it," said Teddy. + +"Who shall we play skat with when you have gone?" asked Mrs. Britling. + +"All this morning," said Herr Heinrich, expanding in the warmth of +sympathy, "I have been trying to pack and I have been unable to pack. My +mind is too greatly disordered. I have been told not to bring much +luggage. Mrs. Britling, please." + +Mrs. Britling became attentive. + +"If I could leave much of my luggage, my clothes, some of them, and +particularly my violin, it would be much more to my convenience. I do +not care to be mobilised with my violin. There may be much crowding. +Then I would but just take my rucksack...." + +"If you will leave your things packed up." + +"And afterwards they could be sent." + +But he did not leave them packed up. The taxi-cab, to order which he had +gone to the junction in the morning on Teddy's complaisant machine, came +presently to carry him off, and the whole family and the first +contingent of the usual hockey players gathered about it to see him off. +The elder boy of the two juniors put a distended rucksack upon the seat. +Herr Heinrich then shook hands with every one. + +"Write and tell us how you get on," cried Mrs. Britling. + +"But if England also makes war!" + +"Write to Reynolds--let me give you his address; he is my agent in New +York," said Mr. Britling, and wrote it down. + +"We'll come to the village corner with you, Herr Heinrich," cried the +boys. + +"No," said Herr Heinrich, sitting down into the automobile, "I will part +with you altogether. It is too much...." + +"_Auf Wiedersehen!_" cried Mr. Britling. "Remember, whatever happens +there will be peace at last!" + +"Then why not at the beginning?" Herr Heinrich demanded with a +reasonable exasperation and repeated his maturer verdict on the whole +European situation; "_Verdammte Bummelei!_" + +"Go," said Mr. Britling to the taxi driver. + +"_Auf Wiedersehen_, Herr Heinrich!" + +"_Auf Wiedersehen!_" + +"Good-bye, Herr Heinrich!" + +"Good luck, Herr Heinrich!" + +The taxi started with a whir, and Herr Heinrich passed out of the gates +and along the same hungry road that had so recently consumed Mr. Direck. +"Give him a last send-off," cried Teddy. "One, Two, Three! _Auf +Wiedersehen!_" + +The voices, gruff and shrill, sounded raggedly together. The dog-rose +hedge cut off the sight of the little face. Then the pink head bobbed up +again. He was standing up and waving the panama hat. Careless of +sunstroke.... + +Then Herr Heinrich had gone altogether.... + +"Well," said Mr. Britling, turning away. + +"I do hope they won't hurt him," said a visitor. + +"Oh, they won't put a youngster like that in the fighting line," said +Mr. Britling. "He's had no training yet. And he has to wear glasses. How +can he shoot? They'll make a clerk of him." + +"He hasn't packed at all," said Mrs. Britling to her husband. "Just come +up for an instant and peep at his room. It's--touching." + +It was touching. + +It was more than touching; in its minute, absurd way it was symbolical +and prophetic, it was the miniature of one small life uprooted. + +The door stood wide open, as he had left it open, careless of all the +little jealousies and privacies of occupation and ownership. Even the +windows were wide open as though he had needed air; he who had always so +sedulously shut his windows since first he came to England. Across the +empty fireplace stretched the great bough of oak he had brought in for +Billy, but now its twigs and leaves had wilted, and many had broken off +and fallen on the floor. Billy's cage stood empty upon a little table in +the corner of the room. Instead of packing, the young man had evidently +paced up and down in a state of emotional elaboration; the bed was +disordered as though he had several times flung himself upon it, and his +books had been thrown about the room despairfully. He had made some +little commencements of packing in a borrowed cardboard box. The violin +lay as if it lay in state upon the chest of drawers, the drawers were +all partially open, and in the middle of the floor sprawled a pitiful +shirt of blue, dropped there, the most flattened and broken-hearted of +garments. The fireplace contained an unsuccessful pencil sketch of a +girl's face, torn across.... + +Husband and wife regarded the abandoned room in silence for a time, and +when Mr. Britling spoke he lowered his voice. + +"I don't see Billy," he said. + +"Perhaps he has gone out of the window," said Mrs. Britling also in a +hushed undertone.... + +"Well," said Mr. Britling abruptly and loudly, turning away from this +first intimation of coming desolations, "let us go down to our hockey! +He had to go, you know. And Billy will probably come back again when he +begins to feel hungry...." + + +Section 11 + +Monday was a public holiday, the First Monday in August, and the day +consecrated by long-established custom to the Matching's Easy Flower +Show in Claverings Park. The day was to live in Mr. Britling's memory +with a harsh brightness like the brightness of that sunshine one sees at +times at the edge of a thunderstorm. There were tents with the exhibits, +and a tent for "Popular Refreshments," there was a gorgeous gold and +yellow steam roundabout with motor-cars and horses, and another in green +and silver with wonderfully undulating ostriches and lions, and each had +an organ that went by steam; there were cocoanut shies and many +ingenious prize-giving shooting and dart-throwing and ring-throwing +stalls, each displaying a marvellous array of crockery, clocks, metal +ornaments, and suchlike rewards. There was a race of gas balloons, each +with a postcard attached to it begging the finder to say where it +descended, and you could get a balloon for a shilling and have a chance +of winning various impressive and embarrassing prizes if your balloon +went far enough--fish carvers, a silver-handled walking-stick, a bog-oak +gramophone-record cabinet, and things like that. And by a special gate +one could go for sixpence into the Claverings gardens, and the sixpence +would be doubled by Lady Homartyn and devoted next winter to the +Matching's Easy coal club. And Mr. Britling went through all the shows +with his boys, and finally left them with a shilling each and his +blessing and paid his sixpence for the gardens and made his way as he +had promised, to have tea with Lady Homartyn. + +The morning papers had arrived late, and he had been reading them and +re-reading them and musing over them intermittently until his family had +insisted upon his coming out to the festivities. They said that if for +no other reason he must come to witness Aunt Wilshire's extraordinary +skill at the cocoanut shy. She could beat everybody. Well, one must not +miss a thing like that. The headlines proclaimed, "The Great Powers at +War; France Invaded by Germany; Germany invaded by Russia; 100,000 +Germans march into Luxemburg; Can England Abstain? Fifty Million Loan to +be Issued." And Germany had not only violated the Treaty of London but +she had seized a British ship in the Kiel Canal.... The roundabouts were +very busy and windily melodious, and the shooting gallery kept popping +and jingling as people shot and broke bottles, and the voices of the +young men and women inviting the crowd to try their luck at this and +that rang loud and clear. Teddy and Letty and Cissie and Hugh were +developing a quite disconcerting skill at the dart-throwing, and were +bent upon compiling a complete tea-set for the Teddy cottage out of +their winnings. There was a score of automobiles and a number of traps +and gigs about the entrance to the portion of the park that had been +railed off for the festival, the small Britling boys had met some +nursery visitors from Claverings House and were busy displaying skill +and calm upon the roundabout ostriches, and less than four hundred miles +away with a front that reached from Nancy to Liege more than a million +and a quarter of grey-clad men, the greatest and best-equipped host the +world had ever seen, were pouring westward to take Paris, grip and +paralyse France, seize the Channel ports, invade England, and make the +German Empire the master-state of the earth. Their equipment was a +marvel of foresight and scientific organisation, from the motor kitchens +that rumbled in their wake to the telescopic sights of the +sharp-shooters, the innumerable machine-guns of the infantry, the supply +of entrenching material, the preparations already made in the invaded +country.... + +"Let's try at the other place for the sugar-basin!" said Teddy, hurrying +past. "Don't get _two_ sugar-basins," said Cissie breathless in +pursuit. "Hugh is trying for a sugar-basin at the other place." + +Then Mr. Britling heard a bellicose note. + +"Let's have a go at the bottles," said a cheerful young farmer. "Ought +to keep up our shooting, these warlike times...." + +Mr. Britling ran against Hickson from the village inn and learnt that he +was disturbed about his son being called up as a reservist. "Just when +he was settling down here. It seems a pity they couldn't leave him for a +bit." + +"'Tis a noosence," said Hickson, "but anyhow, they give first prize to +his radishes. He'll be glad to hear they give first prize to his +radishes. Do you think, Sir, there's very much probability of this war? +It do seem to be beginning like." + +"It looks more like beginning than it has ever done," said Mr. Britling. +"It's a foolish business." + +"I suppose if they start in on us we got to hit back at them," said Mr. +Hickson. "Postman--he's got his papers too...." + +Mr. Britling made his way through the drifting throng towards the little +wicket that led into the Gardens.... + +He was swung round suddenly by a loud bang. + +It was the gun proclaiming the start of the balloon race. + +He stood for some moments watching the scene. The balloon start had +gathered a little crowd of people, village girls in white gloves and +cheerful hats, young men in bright ties and ready-made Sunday suits, +fathers and mothers, boy scouts, children, clerks in straw hats, +bicyclists and miscellaneous folk. Over their heads rose Mr. Cheshunt, +the factotum of the estate. He was standing on a table and handing the +little balloons up into the air one by one. They floated up from his +hand like many-coloured grapes, some rising and falling, some soaring +steadily upward, some spinning and eddying, drifting eastward before the +gentle breeze, a string of bubbles against the sky and the big trees +that bounded the park. Farther away to the right were the striped +canvas tents of the flower-show, still farther off the roundabouts +churned out their music, the shooting galleries popped, and the swing +boats creaked through the air. Cut off from these things by a line of +fencing lay the open park in which the deer grouped themselves under the +great trees and regarded the festival mistrustfully. Teddy and Hugh +appeared breaking away from the balloon race cluster, and hurrying back +to their dart-throwing. A man outside a little tent that stood apart was +putting up a brave-looking notice, "Unstinted Teas One Shilling." The +Teddy perambulator was moored against the cocoanut shy, and Aunt +Wilshire was still displaying her terrible prowess at the cocoanuts. +Already she had won twenty-seven. Strange children had been impressed by +her to carry them, and formed her retinue. A wonderful old lady was Aunt +Wilshire.... + +Then across all the sunshine of this artless festival there appeared, as +if it were writing showing through a picture, "France Invaded by +Germany; Germany Invaded by Russia." + +Mr. Britling turned again towards the wicket, with its collectors of +tribute, that led into the Gardens. + + +Section 12 + +The Claverings gardens, and particularly the great rockery, the lily +pond, and the herbaceous borders, were unusually populous with +unaccustomed visitors and shy young couples. Mr. Britling had to go to +the house for instructions, and guided by the under-butler found Lady +Homartyn hiding away in the walled Dutch garden behind the dairy. She +had been giving away the prizes of the flower-show, and she was resting +in a deck chair while a spinster relation presided over the tea. Mrs. +Britling had fled the outer festival earlier, and was sitting by the +tea-things. Lady Meade and two or three visitors had motored out from +Hartleytree to assist, and Manning had come in with his tremendous +confirmation of all that the morning papers had foreshadowed. + +"Have you any news?" asked Mr. Britling. + +"It's _war!_" said Mrs. Britling. + +"They are in Luxemburg," said Manning. "That can only mean that they are +coming through Belgium." + +"Then I was wrong," said Mr. Britling, "and the world is altogether mad. +And so there is nothing else for us to do but win.... Why could they not +leave Belgium alone?" + +"It's been in all their plans for the last twenty years," said Manning. + +"But it brings us in for certain." + +"I believe they have reckoned on that." + +"Well!" Mr. Britling took his tea and sat down, and for a time he said +nothing. + +"It is three against three," said one of the visitors, trying to count +the Powers engaged. + +"Italy," said Manning, "will almost certainly refuse to fight. In fact +Italy is friendly to us. She is bound to be. This is, to begin with, an +Austrian war. And Japan will fight for us...." + +"I think," said old Lady Meade, "that this is the suicide of Germany. +They cannot possibly fight against Russia and France and ourselves. Why +have they ever begun it?" + +"It may be a longer and more difficult war than people suppose," said +Manning. "The Germans reckon they are going to win." + +"Against us all?" + +"Against us all. They are tremendously prepared." + +"It is impossible that Germany should win," said Mr. Britling, breaking +his silence. "Against her Germany has something more than armies; all +reason, all instinct--the three greatest peoples in the world." + +"At present very badly supplied with war material." + +"That may delay things; it may make the task harder; but it will not +alter the end. Of course we are going to win. Nothing else is thinkable. +I have never believed they meant it. But I see now they meant it. This +insolent arming and marching, this forty years of national blustering; +sooner or later it had to topple over into action...." + +He paused and found they were listening, and he was carried on by his +own thoughts into further speech. + +"This isn't the sort of war," he said, "that is settled by counting guns +and rifles. Something that has oppressed us all has become intolerable +and has to be ended. And it will be ended. I don't know what soldiers +and politicians think of our prospects, but I do know what ordinary +reasonable men think of the business. I know that all we millions of +reasonable civilised onlookers are prepared to spend our last shillings +and give all our lives now, rather than see Germany unbeaten. I know +that the same thing is felt in America, and that given half a chance, +given just one extra shake of that foolish mailed fist in the face of +America, and America also will be in this war by our side. Italy will +come in. She is bound to come in. France will fight like one man. I'm +quite prepared to believe that the Germans have countless rifles and +guns; have got the most perfect maps, spies, plans you can imagine. I'm +quite prepared to hear that they have got a thousand tremendous +surprises in equipment up their sleeves. I'm quite prepared for sweeping +victories for them and appalling disasters for us. Those are the first +things. What I do know is that the Germans understand nothing of the +spirit of man; that they do not dream for a moment of the devil of +resentment this war will arouse. Didn't we all trust them not to let off +their guns? Wasn't that the essence of our liberal and pacific faith? +And here they are in the heart of Europe letting off their guns?" + +"And such a lot of guns," said Manning. + +"Then you think it will be a long war, Mr. Britling?" said Lady Meade. + +"Long or short, it will end in the downfall of Germany. But I do not +believe it will be long. I do not agree with Manning. Even now I cannot +believe that a whole great people can be possessed by war madness. I +think the war is the work of the German armaments party and of the Court +party. They have forced this war on Germany. Well--they must win and go +on winning. So long as they win, Germany will hold together, so long as +their armies are not clearly defeated nor their navy destroyed. But once +check them and stay them and beat them, then I believe that suddenly the +spirit of Germany will change even as it changed after Jena...." + +"Willie Nixon," said one of the visitors, "who came back from Hamburg +yesterday, says they are convinced they will have taken Paris and St. +Petersburg and one or two other little places and practically settled +everything for us by about Christmas." + +"And London?" + +"I forgot if he said London. But I suppose a London more or less hardly +matters. They don't think we shall dare come in, but if we do they will +Zeppelin the fleet and walk through our army--if you can call it an +army." + +Manning nodded confirmation. + +"They do not understand," said Mr. Britling. + +"Sir George Padish told me the same sort of thing," said Lady Homartyn. +"He was in Berlin in June." + +"Of course the efficiency of their preparations is almost incredible," +said another of Lady Meade's party. + +"They have thought out and got ready for everything--literally +everything." + + +Section 13 + +Mr. Britling had been a little surprised by the speech he had made. He +hadn't realised before he began to talk how angry and scornful he was at +this final coming into action of the Teutonic militarism that had so +long menaced his world. He had always said it would never really +fight--and here it was fighting! He was furious with the indignation of +an apologist betrayed. He had only realised the strength and passion of +his own belligerent opinions as he had heard them, and as he walked back +with his wife through the village to the Dower House, he was still in +the swirl of this self-discovery; he was darkly silent, devising +fiercely denunciatory phrases against Krupp and Kaiser. "Krupp and +Kaiser," he grasped that obvious, convenient alliteration. "It is all +that is bad in mediaevalism allied to all that is bad in modernity," he +told himself. + +"The world," he said, startling Mrs. Britling with his sudden speech, +"will be intolerable to live in, it will be unendurable for a decent +human being, unless we win this war. + +"We must smash or be smashed...." + +His brain was so busy with such stuff that for a time he stared at Mrs. +Harrowdean's belated telegram without grasping the meaning of a word of +it. He realised slowly that it was incumbent upon him to go over to her, +but he postponed his departure very readily in order to play hockey. +Besides which it would be a full moon, and he felt that summer moonlight +was far better than sunset and dinner time for the declarations he was +expected to make. And then he went on phrase-making again about Germany +until he had actually bullied off at hockey. + +Suddenly in the midst of the game he had an amazing thought. It came to +him like a physical twinge. + +"What the devil are we doing at this hockey?" he asked abruptly of +Teddy, who was coming up to bully after a goal. "We ought to be drilling +or shooting against those infernal Germans." + +Teddy looked at him questioningly. + +"Oh, come on!" said Mr. Britling with a gust of impatience, and snapped +the sticks together. + + +Section 14 + +Mr. Britling started for his moonlight ride about half-past nine that +night. He announced that he could neither rest nor work, the war had +thrown him into a fever; the driving of the automobile was just the +distraction he needed; he might not, he added casually, return for a day +or so. When he felt he could work again he would come back. He filled up +his petrol tank by the light of an electric torch, and sat in his car in +the garage and studied his map of the district. His thoughts wandered +from the road to Pyecrafts to the coast, and to the possible route of a +raider. Suppose the enemy anticipated a declaration of war! Here he +might come, and here.... + +He roused himself from these speculations to the business in hand. + +The evening seemed as light as day, a cool moonshine filled the world. +The road was silver that flushed to pink at the approach of Mr. +Britling's headlight, the dark turf at the wayside and the bushes on the +bank became for a moment an acid green as the glare passed. The full +moon was climbing up the sky, and so bright that scarcely a star was +visible in the blue grey of the heavens. Houses gleamed white a mile +away, and ever and again a moth would flutter and hang in the light of +the lamps, and then vanish again in the night. + +Gladys was in excellent condition for a run, and so was Mr. Britling. He +went neither fast nor slow, and with a quite unfamiliar confidence. +Life, which had seemed all day a congested confusion darkened by +threats, became cool, mysterious and aloof and with a quality of +dignified reassurance. + +He steered along the narrow road by the black dog-rose hedge, and so +into the high road towards the village. The village was alight at +several windows but almost deserted. Out beyond, a coruscation of lights +burnt like a group of topaz and rubies set in the silver shield of the +night. The festivities of the Flower Show were still in full progress, +and the reduction of the entrance fee after seven had drawn in every +lingering outsider. The roundabouts churned out their relentless music, +and the bottle-shooting galleries popped and crashed. The +well-patronised ostriches and motorcars flickered round in a pulsing +rhythm; black, black, black, before the naphtha flares. + +Mr. Britling pulled up at the side of the road, and sat for a little +while watching the silhouettes move hither and thither from shadow to +shadow across the bright spaces. + +"On the very brink of war--on the brink of Armageddon," he whispered at +last. "Do they understand? Do any of us understand?" + +He slipped in his gear to starting, and was presently running quietly +with his engine purring almost inaudibly along the level road to +Hartleytree. The sounds behind him grew smaller and smaller, and died +away leaving an immense unruffled quiet under the moon. There seemed no +motion but his own, no sound but the neat, subdued, mechanical rhythm in +front of his feet. Presently he ran out into the main road, and heedless +of the lane that turned away towards Pyecrafts, drove on smoothly +towards the east and the sea. Never before had he driven by night. He +had expected a fumbling and tedious journey; he found he had come into +an undreamt-of silvery splendour of motion. For it seemed as though even +the automobile was running on moonlight that night.... Pyecrafts could +wait. Indeed the later he got to Pyecrafts the more moving and romantic +the little comedy of reconciliation would be. And he was in no hurry for +that comedy. He felt he wanted to apprehend this vast summer calm about +him, that alone of all the things of the day seemed to convey anything +whatever of the majestic tragedy that was happening to mankind. As one +slipped through this still vigil one could imagine for the first time +the millions away there marching, the wide river valleys, villages, +cities, mountain-ranges, ports and seas inaudibly busy. + +"Even now," he said, "the battleships may be fighting." + +He listened, but the sound was only the low intermittent drumming of his +cylinders as he ran with his throttle nearly closed, down a stretch of +gentle hill. + +He felt that he must see the sea. He would follow the road beyond the +Rodwell villages, and then turn up to the crest of Eastonbury Hill. And +thither he went and saw in the gap of the low hills beyond a V-shaped +level of moonlit water that glittered and yet lay still. He stopped his +car by the roadside, and sat for a long time looking at this and musing. +And once it seemed to him three little shapes like short black needles +passed in line ahead across the molten silver. + +But that may have been just the straining of the eyes.... + +All sorts of talk had come to Mr. Britling's ears about the navies of +England and France and Germany; there had been public disputes of +experts, much whispering and discussion in private. We had the heavier +vessels, the bigger guns, but it was not certain that we had the +preeminence in science and invention. Were they relying as we were +relying on Dreadnoughts, or had they their secrets and surprises for us? +To-night, perhaps, the great ships were steaming to conflict.... + +To-night all over the world ships must be in flight and ships pursuing; +ten thousand towns must be ringing with the immediate excitement of +war.... + +Only a year ago Mr. Britling had been lunching on a battleship and +looking over its intricate machinery. It had seemed to him then that +there could be no better human stuff in the world than the quiet, +sunburnt, disciplined men and officers he had met.... And our little +army, too, must be gathering to-night, the little army that had been +chastened and reborn in South Africa, that he was convinced was +individually more gallant and self-reliant and capable than any other +army in the world. He would have sneered or protested if he had heard +another Englishman say that, but in his heart he held the dear +belief.... + +And what other aviators in the world could fly as the Frenchmen and +Englishmen he had met once or twice at Eastchurch and Salisbury could +fly? These are things of race and national quality. Let the German cling +to his gasbags. "We shall beat them in the air," he whispered. "We shall +beat them on the seas. Surely we shall beat them on the seas. If we have +men enough and guns enough we shall beat them on land.... Yet--For years +they have been preparing...." + +There was little room in the heart of Mr. Britling that night for any +love but the love of England. He loved England now as a nation of men. +There could be no easy victory. Good for us with our too easy natures +that there could be no easy victory. But victory we must have now--or +perish.... + +He roused himself with a sigh, restarted his engine, and went on to find +some turning place. He still had a colourless impression that the +journey's end was Pyecrafts. + +"We must all do the thing we can," he thought, and for a time the course +of his automobile along a winding down-hill road held his attention so +that he could not get beyond it. He turned about and ran up over the +hill again and down long slopes inland, running very softly and smoothly +with his lights devouring the road ahead and sweeping the banks and +hedges beside him, and as he came down a little hill through a village +he heard a confused clatter and jingle of traffic ahead, and saw the +danger triangle that warns of cross-roads. He slowed down and then +pulled up abruptly. + +Riding across the gap between the cottages was a string of horsemen, and +then a grey cart, and then a team drawing a heavy object--a gun, and +then more horsemen, and then a second gun. It was all a dim brown +procession in the moonlight. A mounted officer came up beside him and +looked at him and then went back to the cross-roads, but as yet England +was not troubling about spies. Four more guns passed, and then a string +of carts and more mounted men, sitting stiffly. Nobody was singing or +shouting; scarcely a word was audible, and through all the column there +was an effect of quiet efficient haste. And so they passed, and rumbled +and jingled and clattered out of the scene, leaving Mr. Britling in his +car in the dreaming village. He restarted his engine once more, and went +his way thoughtfully. + +He went so thoughtfully that presently he missed the road to +Pyecrafts--if ever he had been on the road to Pyecrafts at +all--altogether. He found himself upon a highway running across a +flattish plain, and presently discovered by the sight of the Great Bear, +faint but traceable in the blue overhead, that he was going due north. +Well, presently he would turn south and west; that in good time; now he +wanted to feel; he wanted to think. How could he best help England in +the vast struggle for which the empty silence and beauty of this night +seemed to be waiting? But indeed he was not thinking at all, but +feeling, feeling wonder, as he had never felt it since his youth had +passed from him. This war might end nearly everything in the world as he +had known the world; that idea struggled slowly through the moonlight +into consciousness, and won its way to dominance in his mind. + +The character of the road changed; the hedges fell away, the pine trees +and pine woods took the place of the black squat shapes of the hawthorn +and oak and apple. The houses grew rarer and the world emptier and +emptier, until he could have believed that he was the only man awake and +out-of-doors in all the slumbering land.... + +For a time a little thing caught hold of his dreaming mind. Continually +as he ran on, black, silent birds rose startled out of the dust of the +road before him, and fluttered noiselessly beyond his double wedge of +light. What sort of bird could they be? Were they night-jars? Were they +different kinds of birds snatching at the quiet of the night for a dust +bath in the sand? This little independent thread of inquiry ran through +the texture of his mind and died away.... + +And at one place there was a great bolting of rabbits across the road, +almost under his wheels.... + +The phrases he had used that afternoon at Claverings came back presently +into his head. They were, he felt assured, the phrases that had to be +said now. This war could be seen as the noblest of wars, as the crowning +struggle of mankind against national dominance and national aggression; +or else it was a mere struggle of nationalities and pure destruction and +catastrophe. Its enormous significances, he felt, must not be lost in +any petty bickering about the minor issues of the conflict. But were +these enormous significances being stated clearly enough? Were they +being understood by the mass of liberal and pacific thinkers? He drove +more and more slowly as these questions crowded upon his attention until +at last he came to a stop altogether.... "Certain things must be said +clearly," he whispered. "Certain things--The meaning of England.... The +deep and long-unspoken desire for kindliness and fairness.... Now is the +time for speaking. It must be put as straight now as her gun-fire, as +honestly as the steering of her ships." + +Phrases and paragraphs began to shape themselves in his mind as he sat +with one arm on his steering-wheel. + +Suddenly he roused himself, turned over the map in the map-case beside +him, and tried to find his position.... + +So far as he could judge he had strayed right into Suffolk.... + +About one o'clock in the morning he found himself in Newmarket. +Newmarket too was a moonlit emptiness, but as he hesitated at the +cross-roads he became aware of a policeman standing quite stiff and +still at the corner by the church. + +"Matching's Easy?" he cried. + +"That road, Sir, until you come to Market Saffron, and then to the +left...." + +Mr. Britling had a definite purpose now in his mind, and he drove +faster, but still very carefully and surely. He was already within a +mile or so of Market Saffron before he remembered that he had made a +kind of appointment with himself at Pyecrafts. He stared at two +conflicting purposes. He turned over certain possibilities. + +At the Market Saffron cross-roads he slowed down, and for a moment he +hung undecided. + +"Oliver," he said, and as he spoke he threw over his steering-wheel +towards the homeward way.... He finished his sentence when he had +negotiated the corner safely. "Oliver must have her...." + +And then, perhaps fifty yards farther along, and this time almost +indignantly: "She ought to have married him long ago...." + +He put his automobile in the garage, and then went round under the black +shadow of his cedars to the front door. He had no key, and for a long +time he failed to rouse his wife by flinging pebbles and gravel at her +half-open window. But at last he heard her stirring and called out to +her. + +He explained he had returned because he wanted to write. He wanted +indeed to write quite urgently. He went straight up to his room, lit his +reading-lamp, made himself some tea, and changed into his nocturnal +suit. Daylight found him still writing very earnestly at his pamphlet. +The title he had chosen was: "And Now War Ends." + + +Section 15 + +In this fashion it was that the great war began in Europe and came to +one man in Matching's Easy, as it came to countless intelligent men in +countless pleasant homes that had scarcely heeded its coming through all +the years of its relentless preparation. The familiar scenery of life +was drawn aside, and War stood unveiled. "I am the Fact," said War, "and +I stand astride the path of life. I am the threat of death and +extinction that has always walked beside life, since life began. There +can be nothing else and nothing more in human life until you have +reckoned with me." + + + + + + +BOOK II + +MATCHING'S EASY AT WAR + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +ONLOOKERS + + +Section 1 + +On that eventful night of the first shots and the first deaths Mr. +Britling did not sleep until daylight had come. He sat writing at this +pamphlet of his, which was to hail the last explosion and the ending of +war. For a couple of hours he wrote with energy, and then his energy +flagged. There came intervals when he sat still and did not write. He +yawned and yawned again and rubbed his eyes. The day had come and the +birds were noisy when he undressed slowly, dropping his clothes anyhow +upon the floor, and got into bed.... + +He woke to find his morning tea beside him and the housemaid going out +of the room. He knew that something stupendous had happened to the +world, but for a few moments he could not remember what it was. Then he +remembered that France was invaded by Germany and Germany by Russia, and +that almost certainly England was going to war. It seemed a harsh and +terrible fact in the morning light, a demand for stresses, a certainty +of destruction; it appeared now robbed of all the dark and dignified +beauty of the night. He remembered just the same feeling of unpleasant, +anxious expectation as he now felt when the Boer War had begun fifteen +years ago, before the first news came. The first news of the Boer War +had been the wrecking of a British armoured train near Kimberley. What +similar story might not the overdue paper tell when presently it came? + +Suppose, for instance, that some important division of our Fleet had +been surprised and overwhelmed.... + +Suppose the Germans were already crumpling up the French armies between +Verdun and Belfort, very swiftly and dreadfully.... + +Suppose after all that the Cabinet was hesitating, and that there would +be no war for some weeks, but only a wrangle about Belgian neutrality. +While the Germans smashed France.... + +Or, on the other hand, there might be some amazing, prompt success on +our part. Our army and navy people were narrow, but in their narrow way +he believed they were extraordinarily good.... + +What would the Irish do?... + +His thoughts were no more than a thorny jungle of unanswerable questions +through which he struggled in un-progressive circles. + +He got out of bed and dressed in a slow, distraught manner. When he +reached his braces he discontinued dressing for a time; he opened the +atlas at Northern France, and stood musing over the Belgian border. Then +he turned to Whitaker's Almanack to browse upon the statistics of the +great European armies. He was roused from this by the breakfast gong. + +At breakfast there was no talk of anything but war. Hugh was as excited +as a cat in thundery weather, and the small boys wanted information +about flags. The Russian and the Serbian flag were in dispute, and the +flag page of Webster's Dictionary had to be consulted. Newspapers and +letters were both abnormally late, and Mr. Britling, tiring of supplying +trivial information to his offspring, smoked cigarettes in the garden. +He had an idea of intercepting the postman. His eyes and ears informed +him of the approach of Mrs. Faber's automobile. It was an old, +resolute-looking machine painted red, and driven by a trusted gardener; +there was no mistaking it. + +Mrs. Faber was in it, and she stopped it outside the gate and made +signals. Mrs. Britling, attracted by the catastrophic sounds of Mrs. +Faber's vehicle, came out by the front door, and she and her husband +both converged upon the caller. + + +Section 2 + +"I won't come in," cried Mrs. Faber, "but I thought I'd tell you. I've +been getting food." + +"Food?" + +"Provisions. There's going to be a run on provisions. Look at my flitch +of bacon!" + +"But--" + +"Faber says we have to lay in what we can. This war--it's going to stop +everything. We can't tell what will happen. I've got the children to +consider, so here I am. I was at Hickson's before nine...." + +The little lady was very flushed and bright-eyed. Her fair hair was +disordered, her hat a trifle askew. She had an air of enjoying unwonted +excitements. "All the gold's being hoarded too," she said, with a crow +of delight in her voice. "Faber says that probably our cheques won't be +worth _that_ in a few days. He rushed off to London to get gold at his +clubs--while he can. I had to insist on Hickson taking a cheque. +'Never,' I said, 'will I deal with you again--never--unless you do....' +Even then he looked at me almost as if he thought he wouldn't. + +"It's Famine!" she said, turning to Mr. Britling. "I've laid hands on +all I can. I've got the children to consider." + +"But why is it famine?" asked Mr. Britling. + +"Oh! it _is_!" she said. + +"But why?" + +"Faber understands," she said. "Of course it's Famine...." + +"And would you believe me," she went on, going back to Mrs. Britling, +"that man Hickson stood behind his counter--where I've dealt with him +for _years_, and refused absolutely to let me have more than a dozen +tins of sardines. _Refused!_ Point blank! + +"I was there before nine, and even then Hickson's shop was +crowded--_crowded_, my dear!" + +"What have you got?" said Mr. Britling with an inquiring movement +towards the automobile. + +She had got quite a lot. She had two sides of bacon, a case of sugar, +bags of rice, eggs, a lot of flour. + +"What are all these little packets?" said Mr. Britling. + +Mrs. Faber looked slightly abashed. + +"Cerebos salt," she said. "One gets carried away a little. I just got +hold of it and carried it out to the car. I thought we might have to +salt things later." + +"And the jars are pickles?" said Mr. Britling. + +"Yes. But look at all my flour! That's what will go first...." + +The lady was a little flurried by Mr. Britling's too detailed +examination of her haul. "What good is blacking?" he asked. She would +not hear him. She felt he was trying to spoil her morning. She declared +she must get on back to her home. "Don't say I didn't warn you," she +said. "I've got no end of things to do. There's peas! I want to show +cook how to bottle our peas. For this year--it's lucky, we've got no end +of peas. I came by here just for the sake of telling you." And with that +she presently departed--obviously ruffled by Mrs. Britling's lethargy +and Mr. Britling's scepticism. + +Mr. Britling watched her go off with a slowly rising indignation. + +"And that," he said, "is how England is going to war! Scrambling for +food--at the very beginning." + +"I suppose she is anxious for the children," said Mrs. Britling. + +"Blacking!" + +"After all," said Mr. Britling, "if other people are doing that sort of +thing--" + +"That's the idea of all panics. We've got not to do it.... The country +hasn't even declared war yet! Hallo, here we are! Better late than +never." + +The head of the postman, bearing newspapers and letters, appeared +gliding along the top of the hedge as he cycled down the road towards +the Dower House corner. + + +Section 3 + +England was not yet at war, but all the stars were marching to that end. +It was as if an event so vast must needs take its time to happen. No +doubt was left upon Mr. Britling's mind, though a whole-page +advertisement in the _Daily News_, in enormous type and of mysterious +origin, implored Great Britain not to play into the hands of Russia, +Russia the Terrible, that bugbear of the sentimental Radicals. The news +was wide and sweeping, and rather inaccurate. The Germans were said to +be in Belgium and Holland, and they had seized English ships in the Kiel +Canal. A moratorium had been proclaimed, and the reports of a food panic +showed Mrs. Faber to be merely one example of a large class of excitable +people. + +Mr. Britling found the food panic disconcerting. It did not harmonise +with his leading _motif_ of the free people of the world rising against +the intolerable burthen of militarism. It spoilt his picture.... + +Mrs. Britling shared the paper with Mr. Britling, they stood by the bed +of begonias near the cedar tree and read, and the air was full of the +cheerful activities of the lawn-mower that was being drawn by a +carefully booted horse across the hockey field. + +Presently Hugh came flitting out of the house to hear what had happened. +"One can't work somehow, with all these big things going on," he +apologised. He secured the _Daily News_ while his father and mother read +_The Times_. The voices of the younger boys came from the shade of the +trees; they had brought all their toy soldiers out of doors, and were +making entrenched camps in the garden. + +"The financial situation is an extraordinary one," said Mr. Britling, +concentrating his attention.... "All sorts of staggering things may +happen. In a social and economic system that has grown just anyhow.... +Never been planned.... In a world full of Mrs. Fabers...." + +"Moratorium?" said Hugh over his _Daily News_. "In relation to debts and +so on? Modern side you sent me to, Daddy. I live at hand to mouth in +etymology. Mors and crematorium--do we burn our bills instead of paying +them?" + +"Moratorium," reflected Mr. Britling; "Moratorium. What nonsense you +talk! It's something that delays, of course. Nothing to do with death. +Just a temporary stoppage of payments.... Of course there's bound to be +a tremendous change in values...." + + +Section 4 + +"There's bound to be a tremendous change in values." + +On that text Mr. Britling's mind enlarged very rapidly. It produced a +wonderful crop of possibilities before he got back to his study. He sat +down to his desk, but he did not immediately take up his work. He had +discovered something so revolutionary in his personal affairs that even +the war issue remained for a time in suspense. + +Tucked away in the back of Mr. Britling's consciousness was something +that had not always been there, something warm and comforting that made +life and his general thoughts about life much easier and pleasanter than +they would otherwise have been, the sense of a neatly arranged +investment list, a shrewdly and geographically distributed system of +holdings in national loans, municipal investments, railway debentures, +that had amounted altogether to rather over five-and-twenty thousand +pounds; his and Mrs. Britling's, a joint accumulation. This was, so to +speak, his economic viscera. It sustained him, and kept him going and +comfortable. When all was well he did not feel its existence; he had +merely a pleasant sense of general well-being. When here or there a +security got a little disarranged he felt a vague discomfort. Now he +became aware of grave disorders. It was as if he discovered he had been +accidentally eating toadstools, and didn't quite know whether they +weren't a highly poisonous sort. But an analogy may be carried too +far.... + +At any rate, when Mr. Britling got back to his writing-desk he was much +too disturbed to resume "And Now War Ends." + +"There's bound to be a tremendous change in values!" + +He had never felt quite so sure as most people about the stability of +the modern financial system. He did not, he felt, understand the working +of this moratorium, or the peculiar advantage of prolonging the bank +holidays. It meant, he supposed, a stoppage of payment all round, and a +cutting off of the supply of ready money. And Hickson the grocer, +according to Mrs. Faber, was already looking askance at cheques. + +Even if the bank did reopen Mr. Britling was aware that his current +balance was low; at the utmost it amounted to twenty or thirty pounds. +He had been expecting cheques from his English and American publishers, +and the usual _Times_ cheque. Suppose these payments were intercepted! + +All these people might, so far as he could understand, stop payment +under this moratorium! That hadn't at first occurred to him. But, of +course, quite probably they might refuse to pay his account when it fell +due. + +And suppose _The Times_ felt his peculiar vein of thoughtfulness +unnecessary in these stirring days! + +And then if the bank really did lock up his deposit account, and his +securities became unsaleable! + +Mr. Britling felt like an oyster that is invited to leave its shell.... + +He sat back from his desk contemplating these things. His imagination +made a weak attempt to picture a world in which credit has vanished and +money is of doubtful value. He supposed a large number of people would +just go on buying and selling at or near the old prices by force of +habit. + +His mind and conscience made a valiant attempt to pick up "And Now War +Ends" and go on with it, but before five minutes were out he was back at +the thoughts of food panic and bankruptcy.... + + +Section 5 + +The conflict of interests at Mr. Britling's desk became unendurable. He +felt he must settle the personal question first. He wandered out upon +the lawn and smoked cigarettes. + +His first conception of a great convergent movement of the nations to +make a world peace and an end to militant Germany was being obscured by +this second, entirely incompatible, vision of a world confused and +disorganised. Mrs. Fabers in great multitudes hoarding provisions, +riotous crowds attacking shops, moratorium, shut banks and waiting +queues. Was it possible for the whole system to break down through a +shock to its confidence? Without any sense of incongruity the dignified +pacification of the planet had given place in his mind to these more +intimate possibilities. He heard a rustle behind him, and turned to face +his wife. + +"Do you think," she asked, "that there is any chance of a shortage of +food?" + +"If all the Mrs. Fabers in the world run and grab--" + +"Then every one must grab. I haven't much in the way of stores in the +house." + +"H'm," said Mr. Britling, and reflected.... "I don't think we must buy +stores now." + +"But if we are short." + +"It's the chances of war," said Mr. Britling. + +He reflected. "Those who join a panic make a panic. After all, there is +just as much food in the world as there was last month. And short of +burning it the only way of getting rid of it is to eat it. And the +harvests are good. Why begin a scramble at a groaning board?" + +"But people _are_ scrambling! It would be awkward--with the children and +everything--if we ran short." + +"We shan't. And anyhow, you mustn't begin hoarding, even if it means +hardship." + +"Yes. But you won't like it if suddenly there's no sugar for your tea." + +Mr. Britling ignored this personal application. + +"What is far more serious than a food shortage is the possibility of a +money panic." + +He paced the lawn with her and talked. He said that even now very few +people realised the flimsiness of the credit system by which the modern +world was sustained. It was a huge growth of confidence, due very +largely to the uninquiring indolence of--everybody. It was sound so long +as mankind did, on the whole, believe in it; give only a sufficient loss +of faith and it might suffer any sort of collapse. It might vanish +altogether--as the credit system vanished at the breaking up of Italy by +the Goths--and leave us nothing but tangible things, real property, +possession nine points of the law, and that sort of thing. Did she +remember that last novel of Gissing's?--"Veranilda," it was called. It +was a picture of the world when there was no wealth at all except what +one could carry hidden or guarded about with one. That sort of thing +came to the Roman Empire slowly, in the course of lifetimes, but +nowadays we lived in a rapider world--with flimsier institutions. Nobody +knew the strength or the weakness of credit; nobody knew whether even +the present shock might not send it smashing down.... And then all the +little life we had lived so far would roll away.... + +Mrs. Britling, he noted, glanced ever and again at her sunlit +house--there were new sunblinds, and she had been happy in her choice of +a colour--and listened with a sceptical expression to this +disquisition. + +"A few days ago," said Mr. Britling, trying to make things concrete for +her, "you and I together were worth five-and-twenty thousand pounds. Now +we don't know what we are worth; whether we have lost a thousand or ten +thousand...." + +He examined his sovereign purse and announced he had six pounds. "What +have you?" + +She had about eighteen pounds in the house. + +"We may have to get along with that for an indefinite time." + +"But the bank will open again presently," she said. "And people about +here trust us." + +"Suppose they don't?" + +She did not trouble about the hypothesis. "And our investments will +recover. They always do recover." + +"Everything may recover," he admitted. "But also nothing may recover. +All this life of ours which has seemed so settled and secure--isn't +secure. I have felt that we were fixed here and rooted--for all our +lives. Suppose presently things sweep us out of it? It's a possibility +we may have to face. I feel this morning as if two enormous gates had +opened in our lives, like the gates that give upon an arena, gates +giving on a darkness--through which anything might come. Even death. +Suppose suddenly we were to see one of those great Zeppelins in the air, +or hear the thunder of guns away towards the coast. And if a messenger +came upon a bicycle telling us to leave everything and go inland...." + +"I see no reason why one should go out to meet things like that." + +"But there is no reason why one should not envisage them...." + +"The curious thing," said Mr. Britling, pursuing his examination of the +matter, "is that, looking at these things as one does now, as things +quite possible, they are not nearly so terrifying and devastating to the +mind as they would have seemed--last week. I believe I should load you +all into Gladys and start off westward with a kind of exhilaration...." + +She looked at him as if she would speak, and said nothing. She suspected +him of hating his home and affecting to care for it out of politeness to +her.... + +"Perhaps mankind tries too much to settle down. Perhaps these stirrings +up have to occur to save us from our disposition to stuffy comfort. +There's the magic call of the unknown experience, of dangers and +hardships. One wants to go. But unless some push comes one does not go. +There is a spell that keeps one to the lair and the old familiar ways. +Now I am afraid--and at the same time I feel that the spell is broken. +The magic prison is suddenly all doors. You may call this ruin, +bankruptcy, invasion, flight; they are doors out of habit and +routine.... I have been doing nothing for so long, except idle things +and discursive things." + +"I thought that you managed to be happy here. You have done a lot of +work." + +"Writing is recording, not living. But now I feel suddenly that we are +living intensely. It is as if the whole quality of life was changing. +There are such times. There are times when the spirit of life changes +altogether. The old world knew that better than we do. It made a +distinction between weekdays and Sabbaths, and between feasts and fasts +and days of devotion. That is just what has happened now. Week-day rules +must be put aside. Before--oh! three days ago, competition was fair, it +was fair and tolerable to get the best food one could and hold on to +one's own. But that isn't right now. War makes a Sabbath, and we shut +the shops. The banks are shut, and the world still feels as though +Sunday was keeping on...." + +He saw his own way clear. + +"The scale has altered. It does not matter now in the least if we are +ruined. It does not matter in the least if we have to live upon potatoes +and run into debt for our rent. These now are the most incidental of +things. A week ago they would have been of the first importance. Here we +are face to face with the greatest catastrophe and the greatest +opportunity in history. We have to plunge through catastrophe to +opportunity. There is nothing to be done now in the whole world except +to get the best out of this tremendous fusing up of all the settled +things of life." He had got what he wanted. He left her standing upon +the lawn and hurried back to his desk.... + + +Section 6 + +When Mr. Britling, after a strenuous morning among high ideals, +descended for lunch, he found Mr. Lawrence Carmine had come over to join +him at that meal. Mr. Carmine was standing in the hall with his legs +very wide apart reading _The Times_ for the fourth time. "I can do no +work," he said, turning round. "I can't fix my mind. I suppose we are +going to war. I'd got so used to the war with Germany that I never +imagined it would happen. Gods! what a bore it will be.... And Maxse and +all those scaremongers cock-a-hoop and 'I told you so.' Damn these +Germans!" + +He looked despondent and worried. He followed Mr. Britling towards the +dining-room with his hands deep in his pockets. + +"It's going to be a tremendous thing," he said, after he had greeted +Mrs. Britling and Hugh and Aunt Wilshire and Teddy, and seated himself +at Mr. Britling's hospitable board. "It's going to upset everything. We +don't begin to imagine all the mischief it is going to do." + +Mr. Britling was full of the heady draught of liberal optimism he had +been brewing upstairs. "I am not sorry I have lived to see this war," he +said. "It may be a tremendous catastrophe in one sense, but in another +it is a huge step forward in human life. It is the end of forty years of +evil suspense. It is crisis and solution." + +"I wish I could see it like that," said Mr. Carmine. + +"It is like a thaw--everything has been in a frozen confusion since that +Jew-German Treaty of Berlin. And since 1871." + +"Why not since Schleswig-Holstein?" said Mr. Carmine. + +"Why not? Or since the Treaty of Vienna?" + +"Or since--One might go back." + +"To the Roman Empire," said Hugh. + +"To the first conquest of all," said Teddy.... + +"I couldn't work this morning," said Hugh. "I have been reading in the +Encyclopaedia about races and religions in the Balkans.... It's very +mixed." + +"So long as it could only be dealt with piecemeal," said Mr. Britling. +"And that is just where the tremendous opportunity of this war comes in. +Now everything becomes fluid. We can redraw the map of the world. A week +ago we were all quarrelling bitterly about things too little for human +impatience. Now suddenly we face an epoch. This is an epoch. The world +is plastic for men to do what they will with it. This is the end and the +beginning of an age. This is something far greater than the French +Revolution or the Reformation.... And we live in it...." + +He paused impressively. + +"I wonder what will happen to Albania?" said Hugh, but his comment was +disregarded. + +"War makes men bitter and narrow," said Mr. Carmine. + +"War narrowly conceived," said Mr. Britling. "But this is an indignant +and generous war." + +They speculated about the possible intervention of the United States. +Mr. Britling thought that the attack on Belgium demanded the +intervention of every civilised power, that all the best instincts of +America would be for intervention. "The more," he said, "the quicker." + +"It would be strange if the last power left out to mediate were to be +China," said Mr. Carmine. "The one people in the world who really +believe in peace.... I wish I had your confidence, Britling." + +For a time they contemplated a sort of Grand Inquest on Germany and +militarism, presided over by the Wisdom of the East. Militarism was, as +it were, to be buried as a suicide at four cross-roads, with a stake +through its body to prevent any untimely resuscitation. + + +Section 7 + +Mr. Britling was in a phase of imaginative release. Such a release was +one of the first effects of the war upon many educated minds. Things +that had seemed solid forever were visibly in flux; things that had +seemed stone were alive. Every boundary, every government, was seen for +the provisional thing it was. He talked of his World Congress meeting +year by year, until it ceased to be a speculation and became a mere +intelligent anticipation; he talked of the "manifest necessity" of a +Supreme Court for the world. He beheld that vision at the Hague, but Mr. +Carmine preferred Delhi or Samarkand or Alexandria or Nankin. "Let us +get away from the delusion of Europe anyhow," said Mr. Carmine.... + +As Mr. Britling had sat at his desk that morning and surveyed the +stupendous vistas of possibility that war was opening, the catastrophe +had taken on a more and more beneficial quality. "I suppose that it is +only through such crises as these that the world can reconstruct +itself," I said. And, on the whole that afternoon he was disposed to +hope that the great military machine would not smash itself too easily. +"We want the nations to feel the need of one another," he said. "Too +brief a campaign might lead to a squabble for plunder. The Englishman +has to learn his dependence on the Irishman, the Russian has to be +taught the value of education and the friendship of the Pole.... Europe +will now have to look to Asia, and recognise that Indians and Chinamem +are also 'white.'... But these lessons require time and stresses if +they are to be learnt properly...." + +They discussed the possible duration of the war. + +Mr. Carmine thought it would be a long struggle; Mr. Britling thought +that the Russians would be in Berlin by the next May. He was afraid they +might get there before the end of the year. He thought that the Germans +would beat out their strength upon the French and Belgian lines, and +never be free to turn upon the Russian at all. He was sure they had +underrated the strength and energy of the French and of ourselves. "The +Russians meanwhile," he said, "will come on, slowly, steadily, +inevitably...." + + +Section 8 + +That day of vast anticipations drew out into the afternoon. It was a +day--obsessed. It was the precursor of a relentless series of doomed and +fettered days. There was a sense of enormous occurrences going on just +out of sound and sight--behind the mask of Essex peacefulness. From this +there was no escape. It made all other interests fitful. Games of +Badminton were begun and abruptly truncated by the arrival of the +evening papers; conversations started upon any topic whatever returned +to the war by the third and fourth remark.... + +After lunch Mr. Britling and Mr. Carmine went on talking. Nothing else +was possible. They repeated things they had already said. They went into +things more thoroughly. They sat still for a time, and then suddenly +broke out with some new consideration.... + +It had been their custom to play skat with Herr Heinrich, who had shown +them the game very explicitly and thoroughly. But there was no longer +any Herr Heinrich--and somehow German games were already out of fashion. +The two philosophers admitted that they had already considered skat to +be complicated without subtlety, and that its chief delight for them had +been the pink earnestness of Herr Heinrich, his inability to grasp +their complete but tacit comprehension of its innocent strategy, and his +invariable ill-success to bring off the coups that flashed before his +imagination. + +He would survey the destructive counter-stroke with unconcealed +surprise. He would verify his first impression by craning towards it and +adjusting his glasses on his nose. He had a characteristic way of doing +this with one stiff finger on either side of his sturdy nose. + +"It is very fortunate for you that you have played that card," he would +say, growing pinker and pinker with hasty cerebration. "Or else--yes"--a +glance at his own cards--"it would have been altogether bad for you. I +had taken only a very small risk.... Now I must--" + +He would reconsider his hand. + +"_Zo!_" he would say, dashing down a card.... + +Well, he had gone and skat had gone. A countless multitude of such links +were snapping that day between hundreds of thousands of English and +German homes. + + +Section 9 + +The imminence of war produced a peculiar exaltation in Aunt Wilshire. +She developed a point of view that was entirely her own. + +It was Mr. Britling's habit, a habit he had set himself to acquire after +much irritating experience, to disregard Aunt Wilshire. She was not, +strictly speaking, his aunt; she was one of those distant cousins we +find already woven into our lives when we attain to years of +responsibility. She had been a presence in his father's household when +Mr. Britling was a boy. Then she had been called "Jane," or "Cousin +Jane," or "Your cousin Wilshire." It had been a kindly freak of Mr. +Britling's to promote her to Aunty rank. + +She eked out a small inheritance by staying with relatives. Mr. +Britling's earlier memories presented her as a slender young woman of +thirty, with a nose upon which small boys were forbidden to comment. Yet +she commented upon it herself, and called his attention to its marked +resemblance to that of the great Duke of Wellington. "He was, I am +told," said Cousin Wilshire to the attentive youth, "a great friend of +your great-grandmother's. At any rate, they were contemporaries. Since +then this nose has been in the family. He would have been the last to +draw a veil over it, but other times, other manners. 'Publish,' he said, +'and be damned.'" + +She had a knack of exasperating Mr. Britling's father, a knack which to +a less marked degree she also possessed in relation to the son. But Mr. +Britling senior never acquired the art of disregarding her. Her +method--if one may call the natural expression of a personality a +method--was an invincibly superior knowledge, a firm and ill-concealed +belief that all statements made in her hearing were wrong and most of +them absurd, and a manner calm, assured, restrained. She may have been +born with it; it is on record that at the age of ten she was pronounced +a singularly trying child. She may have been born with the air of +thinking the doctor a muff and knowing how to manage all this business +better. Mr. Britling had known her only in her ripeness. As a boy, he +had enjoyed her confidences--about other people and the general neglect +of her advice. He grew up rather to like her--most people rather liked +her--and to attach a certain importance to her unattainable approval. +She was sometimes kind, she was frequently absurd.... + +With very little children she was quite wise and Jolly.... + +So she circulated about a number of houses which at any rate always +welcomed her coming. In the opening days of each visit she performed +marvels of tact, and set a watch upon her lips. Then the demons of +controversy and dignity would get the better of her. She would begin to +correct, quietly but firmly, she would begin to disapprove of the tone +and quality of her treatment. It was quite common for her visit to +terminate in speechless rage both on the side of host and of visitor. +The remarkable thing was that this speechless rage never endured. Though +she could exasperate she could never offend. Always after an interval +during which she was never mentioned, people began to wonder how Cousin +Jane was getting on.... A tentative correspondence would begin, leading +slowly up to a fresh invitation. + +She spent more time in Mr. Britling's house than in any other. There was +a legend that she had "drawn out" his mind, and that she had "stood up" +for him against his father. She had certainly contradicted quite a +number of those unfavourable comments that fathers are wont to make +about their sons. Though certainly she contradicted everything. And Mr. +Britling hated to think of her knocking about alone in boarding-houses +and hydropathic establishments with only the most casual chances for +contradiction. + +Moreover, he liked to see her casting her eye over the morning paper. +She did it with a manner as though she thought the terrestrial globe a +great fool, and quite beyond the reach of advice. And as though she +understood and was rather amused at the way in which the newspaper +people tried to keep back the real facts of the case from her. + +And now she was scornfully entertained at the behaviour of everybody in +the war crisis. + +She confided various secrets of state to the elder of the younger +Britlings--preferably when his father was within earshot. + +"None of these things they are saying about the war," she said, "really +matter in the slightest degree. It is all about a spoilt carpet and +nothing else in the world--a madman and a spoilt carpet. If people had +paid the slightest attention to common sense none of this war would have +happened. The thing was perfectly well known. He was a delicate child, +difficult to rear and given to screaming fits. Consequently he was never +crossed, allowed to do everything. Nobody but his grandmother had the +slightest influence with him. And she prevented him spoiling this carpet +as completely as he wished to do. The story is perfectly well known. It +was at Windsor--at the age of eight. After that he had but one thought: +war with England.... + +"Everybody seemed surprised," she said suddenly at tea to Mr. Carmine. +"I at least am not surprised. I am only surprised it did not come +sooner. If any one had asked me I could have told them, three years, +five years ago." + +The day was one of flying rumours, Germany was said to have declared war +on Italy, and to have invaded Holland as well as Belgium. + +"They'll declare war against the moon next!" said Aunt Wilshire. + +"And send a lot of Zeppelins," said the smallest boy. "Herr Heinrich +told us they can fly thousands of miles." + +"He will go on declaring war until there is nothing left to declare war +against. That is exactly what he has always done. Once started he cannot +desist. Often he has had to be removed from the dinner-table for fear of +injury. _Now_, it is ultimatums." + +She was much pleased by a headline in the _Daily Express_ that streamed +right across the page: "The Mad Dog of Europe." Nothing else, she said, +had come so near her feelings about the war. + +"Mark my words," said Aunt Wilshire in her most impressive tones. "He is +insane. It will be proved to be so. He will end his days in an +asylum--as a lunatic. I have felt it myself for years and said so in +private.... Knowing what I did.... To such friends as I could trust not +to misunderstand me.... Now at least I can speak out. + +"With his moustaches turned up!" exclaimed Aunt Wilshire after an +interval of accumulation.... "They say he has completely lost the use of +the joint in his left arm, he carries it stiff like a Punch and +Judy--and he wants to conquer Europe.... While his grandmother lived +there was some one to keep him in order. He stood in Awe of her. He +hated her, but he did not dare defy her. Even his uncle had some +influence. Now, nothing restrains him. + +"A double-headed mad dog," said Aunt Wilshire. "Him and his eagles!... A +man like that ought never to have been allowed to make a war.... Not +even a little war.... If he had been put under restraint when I said so, +none of these things would have happened. But, of course I am nobody.... +It was not considered worth attending to." + + +Section 10 + +One remarkable aspect of the English attitude towards the war was the +disposition to treat it as a monstrous joke. It is a disposition +traceable in a vast proportion of the British literature of the time. In +spite of violence, cruelty, injustice, and the vast destruction and +still vaster dangers of the struggles, that disposition held. The +English mind refused flatly to see anything magnificent or terrible in +the German attack, or to regard the German Emperor or the Crown Prince +as anything more than figures of fun. From first to last their +conception of the enemy was an overstrenuous, foolish man, red with +effort, with protruding eyes and a forced frightfulness of demeanour. +That he might be tremendously lethal did not in the least obscure the +fact that he was essentially ridiculous. And if as the war went on the +joke grew grimmer, still it remained a joke. The German might make a +desert of the world; that could not alter the British conviction that he +was making a fool of himself. + +And this disposition kept coming to the surface throughout the +afternoon, now in a casual allusion, now in some deliberate jest. The +small boys had discovered the goose step, and it filled their little +souls with amazement and delight. That human beings should consent to +those ridiculous paces seemed to them almost incredibly funny. They +tried it themselves, and then set out upon a goose-step propaganda. +Letty and Cissie had come up to the Dower House for tea and news, and +they were enrolled with Teddy and Hugh. The six of them, chuckling and +swaying, marched, in vast scissor strides across the lawn. "Left," cried +Hugh. "Left." + +"Toes _out_ more," said Mr. Lawrence Carmine. + +"Keep stiffer," said the youngest Britling. + +"Watch the Zeppelins and look proud," said Hugh. "With the chest out. +_Zo!_" + +Mrs. Britling was so much amused that she went in for her camera, and +took a snapshot of the detachment. It was a very successful snapshot, +and a year later Mr. Britling was to find a print of it among his +papers, and recall the sunshine and the merriment.... + + +Section 11 + +That night brought the British declaration of war against Germany. To +nearly every Englishman that came as a matter of course, and it is one +of the most wonderful facts in history that the Germans were surprised +by it. When Mr. Britling, as a sample Englishman, had said that there +would never be war between Germany and England, he had always meant that +it was inconceivable to him that Germany should ever attack Belgium or +France. If Germany had been content to fight a merely defensive war upon +her western frontier and let Belgium alone, there would scarcely have +been such a thing as a war party in Great Britain. But the attack upon +Belgium, the westward thrust, made the whole nation flame unanimously +into war. It settled a question that was in open debate up to the very +outbreak of the conflict. Up to the last the English had cherished the +idea that in Germany, just as in England, the mass of people were +kindly, pacific, and detached. That had been the English mistake. +Germany was really and truly what Germany had been professing to be for +forty years, a War State. With a sigh--and a long-forgotten +thrill--England roused herself to fight. Even now she still roused +herself sluggishly. It was going to be an immense thing, but just how +immense it was going to be no one in England had yet imagined. + +Countless men that day whom Fate had marked for death and wounds stared +open-mouthed at the news, and smiled with the excitement of the +headlines, not dreaming that any of these things would come within three +hundred miles of them. What was war to Matching's Easy--to all the +Matching's Easies great and small that make up England? The last home +that was ever burnt by an enemy within a hundred miles of Matching's +Easy was burnt by the Danes rather more than a thousand years ago.... +And the last trace of those particular Danes in England were certain +horny scraps of indurated skin under the heads of the nails in the door +of St. Clement Danes in London.... + +Now again, England was to fight in a war which was to light fires in +England and bring death to English people on English soil. There were +inconceivable ideas in August, 1914. Such things must happen before they +can be comprehended as possible. + + +Section 12 + +This story is essentially the history of the opening and of the +realisation of the Great War as it happened to one small group of people +in Essex, and more particularly as it happened to one human brain. It +came at first to all these people in a spectacular manner, as a thing +happening dramatically and internationally, as a show, as something in +the newspapers, something in the character of an historical epoch rather +than a personal experience; only by slow degrees did it and its +consequences invade the common texture of English life. If this story +could be represented by sketches or pictures the central figure would be +Mr. Britling, now sitting at his desk by day or by night and writing +first at his tract "And Now War Ends" and then at other things, now +walking about his garden or in Claverings park or going to and fro in +London, in his club reading the ticker or in his hall reading the +newspaper, with ideas and impressions continually clustering, expanding, +developing more and more abundantly in his mind, arranging themselves, +reacting upon one another, building themselves into generalisations and +conclusions.... + +All Mr. Britling's mental existence was soon threaded on the war. His +more or less weekly _Times_ leader became dissertations upon the German +point of view; his reviews of books and Literary Supplement articles +were all oriented more and more exactly to that one supreme fact.... + +It was rare that he really seemed to be seeing the war; few people saw +it; for most of the world it came as an illimitable multitude of +incoherent, loud, and confusing impressions. But all the time he was at +least doing his utmost to see the war, to simplify it and extract the +essence of it until it could be apprehended as something epic and +explicable, as a stateable issue.... + +Most typical picture of all would be Mr. Britling writing in a little +circle of orange lamplight, with the blinds of his room open for the +sake of the moonlight, but the window shut to keep out the moths that +beat against it. Outside would be the moon and the high summer sky and +the old church tower dim above the black trees half a mile away, with +its clock--which Mr. Britling heard at night but never noted by +day--beating its way round the slow semicircle of the nocturnal hours. +He had always hated conflict and destruction, and felt that war between +civilised states was the quintessential expression of human failure, it +was a stupidity that stopped progress and all the free variation of +humanity, a thousand times he had declared it impossible, but even now +with his country fighting he was still far from realising that this was +a thing that could possibly touch him more than intellectually. He did +not really believe with his eyes and finger-tips and backbone that +murder, destruction, and agony on a scale monstrous beyond precedent was +going on in the same world as that which slumbered outside the black ivy +and silver shining window-sill that framed his peaceful view. + +War had not been a reality of the daily life of England for more than a +thousand years. The mental habit of the nation for fifty generations was +against its emotional recognition. The English were the spoilt children +of peace. They had never been wholly at war for three hundred years, and +for over eight hundred years they had not fought for life against a +foreign power. Spain and France had threatened in turn, but never even +crossed the seas. It is true that England had had her civil dissensions +and had made wars and conquests in every part of the globe and +established an immense empire, but that last, as Mr. Britling had told +Mr. Direck, was "an excursion." She had just sent out younger sons and +surplus people, emigrants and expeditionary forces. Her own soil had +never seen any successful foreign invasion; her homeland, the bulk of +her households, her general life, had gone on untouched by these things. +Nineteen people out of twenty, the middle class and most of the lower +class, knew no more of the empire than they did of the Argentine +Republic or the Italian Renaissance. It did not concern them. War that +calls upon every man and threatens every life in the land, war of the +whole national being, was a thing altogether outside English experience +and the scope of the British imagination. It was still incredible, it +was still outside the range of Mr. Britling's thoughts all through the +tremendous onrush and check of the German attack in the west that opened +the great war. Through those two months he was, as it were, a more and +more excited spectator at a show, a show like a baseball match, a +spectator with money on the event, rather than a really participating +citizen of a nation thoroughly at war.... + + +Section 13 + +After the jolt of the food panic and a brief, financial scare, the vast +inertia of everyday life in England asserted itself. When the public +went to the banks for the new paper money, the banks tendered +gold--apologetically. The supply of the new notes was very insufficient, +and there was plenty of gold. After the first impression that a +universal catastrophe had happened there was an effect as if nothing had +happened. + +Shops re-opened after the Bank Holiday, in a tentative spirit that +speedily became assurance; people went about their business again, and +the war, so far as the mass of British folk were concerned, was for some +weeks a fever of the mind and intelligence rather than a physical and +personal actuality. There was a keen demand for news, and for a time +there was very little news. The press did its best to cope with this +immense occasion. Led by the _Daily Express_, all the halfpenny +newspapers adopted a new and more resonant sort of headline, the +streamer, a band of emphatic type that ran clean across the page and +announced victories or disconcerting happenings. They did this every +day, whether there was a great battle or the loss of a trawler to +announce, and the public mind speedily adapted itself to the new pitch. + +There was no invitation from the government and no organisation for any +general participation in war. People talked unrestrictedly; every one +seemed to be talking; they waved flags and displayed much vague +willingness to do something. Any opportunity of service was taken very +eagerly. Lord Kitchener was understood to have demanded five hundred +thousand men; the War Office arrangements for recruiting, arrangements +conceived on a scale altogether too small, were speedily overwhelmed by +a rush of willing young men. The flow had to be checked by raising the +physical standard far above the national average, and recruiting died +down to manageable proportions. There was a quite genuine belief that +the war might easily be too exclusively considered; that for the great +mass of people it was a disturbing and distracting rather than a vital +interest. The phase "Business as Usual" ran about the world, and the +papers abounded in articles in which going on as though there was no war +at all was demonstrated to be the truest form of patriotism. "Leave +things to Kitchener" was another watchword with a strong appeal to the +national quality. "Business as usual during Alterations to the Map of +Europe" was the advertisement of one cheerful barber, widely quoted.... + +Hugh was at home all through August. He had thrown up his rooms in +London with his artistic ambitions, and his father was making all the +necessary arrangements for him to follow Cardinal to Cambridge. +Meanwhile Hugh was taking up his scientific work where he had laid it +down. He gave a reluctant couple of hours in the afternoon to the +mysteries of Little-go Greek, and for the rest of his time he was either +working at mathematics and mathematical physics or experimenting in a +little upstairs room that had been carved out of the general space of +the barn. It was only at the very end of August that it dawned upon him +or Mr. Britling that the war might have more than a spectacular and +sympathetic appeal for him. Hitherto contemporary history had happened +without his personal intervention. He did not see why it should not +continue to happen with the same detachment. The last elections--and a +general election is really the only point at which the life of the +reasonable Englishman becomes in any way public--had happened four years +ago, when he was thirteen. + + +Section 14 + +For a time it was believed in Matching's Easy that the German armies had +been defeated and very largely destroyed at Liege. It was a mistake not +confined to Matching's Easy. + +The first raiding attack was certainly repulsed with heavy losses, and +so were the more systematic assaults on August the sixth and seventh. +After that the news from Liege became uncertain, but it was believed in +England that some or all of the forts were still holding out right up to +the German entry into Brussels. Meanwhile the French were pushing into +their lost provinces, occupying Altkirch, Mulhausen and Saarburg; the +Russians were invading Bukovina and East Prussia; the _Goeben_, the +_Breslau_ and the _Panther_ had been sunk by the newspapers in an +imaginary battle in the Mediterranean, and Togoland was captured by the +French and British. Neither the force nor the magnitude of the German +attack through Belgium was appreciated by the general mind, and it was +possible for Mr. Britling to reiterate his fear that the war would be +over too soon, long before the full measure of its possible benefits +could be secured. But these apprehensions were unfounded; the lessons +the war had in store for Mr. Britling were far more drastic than +anything he was yet able to imagine even in his most exalted moods. + +He resisted the intimations of the fall of Brussels and the appearance +of the Germans at Dinant. The first real check to his excessive +anticipations of victory for the Allies came with the sudden +reappearance of Mr. Direck in a state of astonishment and dismay at +Matching's Easy. He wired from the Strand office, "Coming to tell you +about things," and arrived on the heels of his telegram. + +He professed to be calling upon Mr. and Mrs. Britling, and to a certain +extent he was; but he had a quick eye for the door or windows; his +glance roved irrelevantly as he talked. A faint expectation of Cissie +came in with him and hovered about him, as the scent of violets follows +the flower. + +He was, however, able to say quite a number of things before Mr. +Britling's natural tendency to do the telling asserted itself. + +"My word," said Mr. Direck, "but this is _some_ war. It is going on +regardless of every decent consideration. As an American citizen I +naturally expected to be treated with some respect, war or no war. That +expectation has not been realised.... Europe is dislocated.... You have +no idea here yet how completely Europe is dislocated.... + +"I came to Europe in a perfectly friendly spirit--and I must say I am +surprised. Practically I have been thrown out, neck and crop. All my +luggage is lost. Away at some one-horse junction near the Dutch frontier +that I can't even learn the name of. There's joy in some German home, I +guess, over my shirts; they were real good shirts. This tweed suit I +have is all the wardrobe I've got in the world. All my money--good +American notes--well, they laughed at them. And when I produced English +gold they suspected me of being English and put me under arrest.... I +can assure you that the English are most unpopular in Germany at the +present time, thoroughly unpopular.... Considering that they are getting +exactly what they were asking for, these Germans are really remarkably +annoyed.... Well, I had to get the American consul to advance me money, +and I've done more waiting about and irregular fasting and travelling on +an empty stomach and viewing the world, so far as it was permitted, from +railway sidings--for usually they made us pull the blinds down when +anything important was on the track--than any cow that ever came to +Chicago.... I was handed as freight--low grade freight.... It doesn't +bear recalling." + +Mr. Direck assumed as grave and gloomy an expression as the facial +habits of years would permit. + +"I tell you I never knew there was such a thing as war until this +happened to me. In America we don't know there is such a thing. It's +like pestilence and famine; something in the story books. We've +forgotten it for anything real. There's just a few grandfathers go +around talking about it. Judge Holmes and sage old fellows like him. +Otherwise it's just a game the kids play at.... And then suddenly here's +everybody running about in the streets--hating and threatening--and nice +old gentlemen with white moustaches and fathers of families scheming and +planning to burn houses and kill and hurt and terrify. And nice young +women, too, looking for an Englishman to spit at; I tell you I've been +within range and very uncomfortable several times.... And what one can't +believe is that they are really doing these things. There's a little +village called Vise near the Dutch frontier; some old chap got fooling +there with a fowling-piece; and they've wiped it out. Shot the people by +the dozen, put them out in rows three deep and shot them, and burnt the +place. Short of scalping, Red Indians couldn't have done worse. +Respectable German soldiers.... + +"No one in England really seems to have any suspicion what is going on +in Belgium. You hear stories--People tell them in Holland. It takes your +breath away. They have set out just to cow those Belgians. They have +started in to be deliberately frightful. You do not begin to +understand.... Well.... Outrages. The sort of outrages Americans have +never heard of. That one doesn't speak of.... Well.... Rape.... They +have been raping women for disciplinary purposes on tables in the +market-place of Liege. Yes, sir. It's a fact. I was told it by a man who +had just come out of Belgium. Knew the people, knew the place, knew +everything. People over here do not seem to realise that those women are +the same sort of women that you might find in Chester or Yarmouth, or in +Matching's Easy for the matter of that. They still seem to think that +Continental women are a different sort of women--more amenable to that +sort of treatment. They seem to think there is some special Providential +law against such things happening to English people. And it's within +two hundred miles of you--even now. And as far as I can see there's +precious little to prevent it coming nearer...." + +Mr. Britling thought there were a few little obstacles. + +"I've seen the new British army drilling in London, Mr. Britling. I +don't know if you have. I saw a whole battalion. And they hadn't got +half-a-dozen uniforms, and not a single rifle to the whole battalion. + +"You don't begin to realise in England what you are up against. You have +no idea what it means to be in a country where everybody, the women, the +elderly people, the steady middle-aged men, are taking war as seriously +as business. They haven't the slightest compunction. I don't know what +Germany was like before the war, I had hardly gotten out of my train +before the war began; but Germany to-day is one big armed camp. It's all +crawling with soldiers. And every soldier has his uniform and his boots +and his arms and his kit. + +"And they're as sure of winning as if they had got London now. They mean +to get London. They're cocksure they are going to walk through Belgium, +cocksure they will get to Paris by Sedan day, and then they are going to +destroy your fleet with Zeppelins and submarines and make a dash across +the Channel. They say it's England they are after, in this invasion of +Belgium. They'll just down France by the way. They say they've got guns +to bombard Dover from Calais. They make a boast of it. They know for +certain you can't arm your troops. They know you can't turn out ten +thousand rifles a week. They come and talk to any one in the trains, and +explain just how your defeat is going to be managed. It's just as though +they were talking of rounding up cattle." + +Mr. Britling said they would soon be disillusioned. + +Mr. Direck, with the confidence of his authentic observations, remarked +after a perceptible interval, "I wonder how." + +He reverted to the fact that had most struck upon his imagination. + +"Grown-up people, ordinary intelligent experienced people, taking war +seriously, talking of punishing England; it's a revelation. A sort of +solemn enthusiasm. High and low.... + +"And the trainloads of men and the trainloads of guns...." + +"Liege," said Mr. Britling. + +"Liege was just a scratch on the paint," said Mr. Direck. "A few +thousand dead, a few score thousand dead, doesn't matter--not a red cent +to them. There's a man arrived at the Cecil who saw them marching into +Brussels. He sat at table with me at lunch yesterday. All day it went +on, a vast unending river of men in grey. Endless waggons, endless guns, +the whole manhood of a nation and all its stuff, marching.... + +"I thought war," said Mr. Direck, "was a thing when most people stood +about and did the shouting, and a sort of special team did the fighting. +Well, Germany isn't fighting like that.... I confess it, I'm scared.... +It's the very biggest thing on record; it's the very limit in wars.... I +dreamt last night of a grey flood washing everything in front of it. You +and me--and Miss Corner--curious thing, isn't it? that she came into +it--were scrambling up a hill higher and higher, with that flood pouring +after us. Sort of splashing into a foam of faces and helmets and +bayonets--and clutching hands--and red stuff.... Well, Mr. Britling, I +admit I'm a little bit overwrought about it, but I can assure you you +don't begin to realise in England what it is you've butted against...." + + +Section 15 + +Cissie did not come up to the Dower House that afternoon, and so Mr. +Direck, after some vague and transparent excuses, made his way to the +cottage. + +Here his report become even more impressive. Teddy sat on the writing +desk beside the typewriter and swung his legs slowly. Letty brooded in +the armchair. Cissie presided over certain limited crawling operations +of the young heir. + +"They could have the equal of the whole British Army killed three times +over and scarcely know it had happened. They're _all_ in it. It's a +whole country in arms." + +Teddy nodded thoughtfully. + +"There's our fleet," said Letty. + +"Well, _that_ won't save Paris, will it?" + +Mr. Direck didn't, he declared, want to make disagreeable talk, but this +was a thing people in England had to face. He felt like one of them +himself--"naturally." He'd sort of hurried home to them--it was just +like hurrying home--to tell them of the tremendous thing that was going +to hit them. He felt like a man in front of a flood, a great grey flood. +He couldn't hide what he had been thinking. "Where's our army?" asked +Letty suddenly. + +"Lost somewhere in France," said Teddy. "Like a needle in a bottle of +hay." + +"What I keep on worrying at is this," Mr. Direck resumed. "Suppose they +did come, suppose somehow they scrambled over, sixty or seventy thousand +men perhaps." + +"Every man would turn out and take a shot at them," said Letty. + +"But there's no rifles!" + +"There's shot guns." + +"That's exactly what I'm afraid of," said Mr. Direck. "They'd +massacre.... + +"You may be the bravest people on earth," said Mr. Direck, "but if you +haven't got arms and the other chaps have--you're just as if you were +sheep." + +He became gloomily pensive. + +He roused himself to describe his experiences at some length, and the +extraordinary disturbance of his mind. He related more particularly his +attempts to see the sights of Cologne during the stir of mobilisation. +After a time his narrative flow lost force, and there was a general +feeling that he ought to be left alone with Cissie. Teddy had a letter +that must be posted; Letty took the infant to crawl on the mossy stones +under the pear tree. Mr. Direck leant against the window-sill and became +silent for some moments after the door had closed on Letty. + +"As for you, Cissie," he began at last, "I'm anxious. I'm real anxious. +I wish you'd let me throw the mantle of Old Glory over you." + +He looked at her earnestly. + +"Old Glory?" asked Cissie. + +"Well--the Stars and Stripes. I want you to be able to claim American +citizenship--in certain eventualities. It wouldn't be so very difficult. +All the world over, Cissie, Americans are respected.... Nobody dares +touch an American citizen. We are--an inviolate people." + +He paused. "But how?" asked Cissie. + +"It would be perfectly easy--perfectly." + +"How?" + +"Just marry an American citizen," said Mr. Direck, with his face beaming +with ingenuous self-approval. "Then you'd be safe, and I'd not have to +worry." + +"Because we're in for a stiff war!" cried Cissie, and Direck perceived +he had blundered. + +"Because we may be invaded!" she said, and Mr. Direck's sense of error +deepened. + +"I vow--" she began. + +"No!" cried Mr. Direck, and held out a hand. + +There was a moment of crisis. + +"Never will I desert my country--while she is at war," said Cissie, +reducing her first fierce intention, and adding as though she regretted +her concession, "Anyhow." + +"Then it's up to me to end the war, Cissie," said Mr. Direck, trying to +get her back to a less spirited attitude. + +But Cissie wasn't to be got back so easily. The war was already +beckoning to them in the cottage, and drawing them down from the +auditorium into the arena. + +"This is the rightest war in history," she said. "If I was an American I +should be sorry to be one now and to have to stand out of it. I wish I +was a man now so that I could do something for all the decency and +civilisation the Germans have outraged. I can't understand how any man +can be content to keep out of this, and watch Belgium being destroyed. +It is like looking on at a murder. It is like watching a dog killing a +kitten...." + +Mr. Direck's expression was that of a man who is suddenly shown strange +lights upon the world. + + +Section 16 + +Mr. Britling found Mr. Direck's talk very indigestible. + +He was parting very reluctantly from his dream of a disastrous collapse +of German imperialism, of a tremendous, decisive demonstration of the +inherent unsoundness of militarist monarchy, to be followed by a world +conference of chastened but hopeful nations, and--the Millennium. He +tried now to think that Mr. Direck had observed badly and misconceived +what he saw. An American, unused to any sort of military occurrences, +might easily mistake tens of thousands for millions, and the excitement +of a few commercial travellers for the enthusiasm of a united people. +But the newspapers now, with a kindred reluctance, were beginning to +qualify, bit by bit, their first representation of the German attack +through Belgium as a vast and already partly thwarted parade of +incompetence. The Germans, he gathered, were being continually beaten in +Belgium; but just as continually they advanced. Each fresh newspaper +name he looked up on the map marked an oncoming tide. Alost--Charleroi. +Farther east the French were retreating from the Saales Pass. Surely the +British, who had now been in France for a fortnight, would presently be +manifest, stemming the onrush; somewhere perhaps in Brabant or East +Flanders. It gave Mr. Britling an unpleasant night to hear at Claverings +that the French were very ill-equipped; had no good modern guns either +at Lille or Maubeuge, were short of boots and equipment generally, and +rather depressed already at the trend of things. Mr. Britling dismissed +this as pessimistic talk, and built his hopes on the still invisible +British army, hovering somewhere-- + +He would sit over the map of Belgium, choosing where he would prefer to +have the British hover.... + +Namur fell. The place names continued to shift southward and westward. +The British army or a part of it came to light abruptly at Mons. It had +been fighting for thirty-eight hours and defeating enormously superior +forces of the enemy. That was reassuring until a day or so later "the +Cambray--Le Cateau line" made Mr. Britling realise that the victorious +British had recoiled five and twenty miles.... + +And then came the Sunday of _The Times_ telegram, which spoke of a +"retreating and a broken army." Mr. Britling did not see this, but Mr. +Manning brought over the report of it in a state of profound +consternation. Things, he said, seemed to be about as bad as they could +be. The English were retreating towards the coast and in much disorder. +They were "in the air" and already separated from the Trench. They had +narrowly escaped "a Sedan" under the fortifications of Maubeuge.... Mr. +Britling was stunned. He went to his study and stared helplessly at +maps. It was as if David had flung his pebble--and missed! + +But in the afternoon Mr. Manning telephoned to comfort his friend. A +reassuring despatch from General French had been published and--all was +well--practically--and the British had been splendid. They had been +fighting continuously for several days round and about Mons; they had +been attacked at odds of six to one, and they had repulsed and +inflicted enormous losses on the enemy. They had established an +incontestable personal superiority over the Germans. The Germans had +been mown down in heaps; the British had charged through their cavalry +like charging through paper. So at last and very gloriously for the +British, British and German had met in battle. After the hard fighting +of the 26th about Landrecies, the British had been comparatively +unmolested, reinforcements covering double the losses had joined them +and the German advance was definitely checked ... Mr. Britling's mind +swung back to elation. He took down the entire despatch from Mr. +Manning's dictation, and ran out with it into the garden where Mrs. +Britling, with an unwonted expression of anxiety, was presiding over the +teas of the usual casual Sunday gathering.... The despatch was read +aloud twice over. After that there was hockey and high spirits, and then +Mr. Britling went up to his study to answer a letter from Mrs. +Harrowdean, the first letter that had come from her since their breach +at the outbreak of the war, and which he was now in a better mood to +answer than he had been hitherto. + +She had written ignoring his silence and absence, or rather treating it +as if it were an incident of no particular importance. Apparently she +had not called upon the patient and devoted Oliver as she had +threatened; at any rate, there were no signs of Oliver in her +communication. But she reproached Mr. Britling for deserting her, and +she clamoured for his presence and for kind and strengthening words. She +was, she said, scared by this war. She was only a little thing, and it +was all too dreadful, and there was not a soul in the world to hold her +hand, at least no one who understood in the slightest degree how she +felt. (But why was not Oliver holding her hand?) She was like a child +left alone in the dark. It was perfectly horrible the way that people +were being kept in the dark. The stories one heard, "_often from quite +trustworthy sources_," were enough to depress and terrify any one. +Battleship after battleship had been sunk by German torpedoes, a thing +kept secret from us for no earthly reason, and Prince Louis of +Battenberg had been discovered to be a spy and had been sent to the +Tower. Haldane too was a spy. Our army in France had been "practically +_sold_" by the French. Almost all the French generals were in German +pay. The censorship and the press were keeping all this back, but what +good was it to keep it back? It was folly not to trust people! But it +was all too dreadful for a poor little soul whose only desire was to +live happily. Why didn't he come along to her and make her feel she had +protecting arms round her? She couldn't think in the daytime: she +couldn't sleep at night.... + +Then she broke away into the praises of serenity. Never had she thought +so much of his beautiful "Silent Places" as she did now. How she longed +to take refuge in some such dreamland from violence and treachery and +foolish rumours! She was weary of every reality. She wanted to fly away +into some secret hiding-place and cultivate her simple garden there--as +Voltaire had done.... Sometimes at night she was afraid to undress. She +imagined the sound of guns, she imagined landings and frightful scouts +"in masks" rushing inland on motor bicycles.... + +It was an ill-timed letter. The nonsense about Prince Louis of +Battenberg and Lord Haldane and the torpedoed battleships annoyed him +extravagantly. He had just sufficient disposition to believe such tales +as to find their importunity exasperating. The idea of going over to +Pyecrafts to spend his days in comforting a timid little dear obsessed +by such fears, attracted him not at all. He had already heard enough +adverse rumours at Claverings to make him thoroughly uncomfortable. He +had been doubting whether after all his "Examination of War" was really +much less of a futility than "And Now War Ends"; his mind was full of a +sense of incomplete statements and unsubstantial arguments. He was +indeed in a state of extreme intellectual worry. He was moreover +extraordinarily out of love with Mrs. Harrowdean. Never had any +affection in the whole history of Mr. Britling's heart collapsed so +swiftly and completely. He was left incredulous of ever having cared for +her at all. Probably he hadn't. Probably the whole business had been +deliberate illusion from first to last. The "dear little thing" +business, he felt, was all very well as a game of petting, but times +were serious now, and a woman of her intelligence should do something +better than wallow in fears and elaborate a winsome feebleness. A very +unnecessary and tiresome feebleness. He came almost to the pitch of +writing that to her. + +The despatch from General French put him into a kindlier frame of mind. +He wrote instead briefly but affectionately. As a gentleman should. "How +could you doubt our fleet or our army?" was the gist of his letter. He +ignored completely every suggestion of a visit to Pyecrafts that her +letter had conveyed. He pretended that it had contained nothing of the +sort.... And with that she passed out of his mind again under the stress +of more commanding interests.... + +Mr. Britling's mood of relief did not last through the week. The +defeated Germans continued to advance. Through a week of deepening +disillusionment the main tide of battle rolled back steadily towards +Paris. Lille was lost without a struggle. It was lost with mysterious +ease.... The next name to startle Mr. Britling as he sat with newspaper +and atlas following these great events was Compiegne. "Here!" Manifestly +the British were still in retreat. Then the Germans were in possession +of Laon and Rheims and still pressing south. Maubeuge surrounded and cut +off for some days, had apparently fallen.... + +It was on Sunday, September the sixth, that the final capitulation of +Mr. Britling's facile optimism occurred. + +He stood in the sunshine reading the _Observer_ which the gardener's boy +had just brought from the May Tree. He had spread it open on a garden +table under the blue cedar, and father and son were both reading it, +each as much as the other would let him. There was fresh news from +France, a story of further German advances, fighting at Senlis--"But +that is quite close to Paris!"--and the appearance of German forces at +Nogent-sur-Seine. "Sur Seine!" cried Mr. Britling. "But where can that +be? South of the Marne? Or below Paris perhaps?" + +It was not marked upon the _Observer's_ map, and Hugh ran into the house +for the atlas. + +When he returned Mr. Manning was with his father, and they both looked +grave. + +Hugh opened the map of northern France. "Here it is," he said. + +Mr. Britling considered the position. + +"Manning says they are at Rouen," he told Hugh. "Our base is to be moved +round to La Rochelle...." + +He paused before the last distasteful conclusion. + +"Practically," he admitted, taking his dose, "they have got Paris. It is +almost surrounded now." + +He sat down to the map. Mr. Manning and Hugh stood regarding him. He +made a last effort to imagine some tremendous strategic reversal, some +stone from an unexpected sling that should fell this Goliath in the +midst of his triumph. + +"Russia," he said, without any genuine hope.... + + +Section 17 + +And then it was that Mr. Britling accepted the truth. + +"One talks," he said, "and then weeks and months later one learns the +meaning of the things one has been saying. I was saying a month ago that +this is the biggest thing that has happened in history. I said that +this was the supreme call upon the will and resources of England. I +said there was not a life in all our empire that would not be vitally +changed by this war. I said all these things; they came through my +mouth; I suppose there was a sort of thought behind them.... Only at +this moment do I understand what it is that I said. Now--let me say it +over as if I had never said it before; this _is_ the biggest thing in +history, that we _are_ all called upon to do our utmost to resist this +tremendous attack upon the peace and freedom of the world. Well, doing +our utmost does not mean standing about in pleasant gardens waiting for +the newspaper.... It means the abandonment of ease and security.... + +"How lazy we English are nowadays! How readily we grasp the comforting +delusion that excuses us from exertion. For the last three weeks I have +been deliberately believing that a little British army--they say it is +scarcely a hundred thousand men--would somehow break this rush of +millions. But it has been driven back, as any one not in love with easy +dreams might have known it would be driven back--here and then here and +then here. It has been fighting night and day. It has made the most +splendid fight--and the most ineffectual fight.... You see the vast +swing of the German flail through Belgium. And meanwhile we have been +standing about talking of the use we would make of our victory.... + +"We have been asleep," he said. "This country has been asleep.... + +"At the back of our minds," he went on bitterly, "I suppose we thought +the French would do the heavy work on land--while we stood by at sea. So +far as we thought at all. We're so temperate-minded; we're so full of +qualifications and discretions.... And so leisurely.... Well, France is +down. We've got to fight for France now over the ruins of Paris. Because +you and I, Manning, didn't grasp the scale of it, because we indulged in +generalisations when we ought to have been drilling and working. +Because we've been doing 'business as usual' and all the rest of that +sort of thing, while Western civilisation has been in its death agony. +If this is to be another '71, on a larger scale and against not merely +France but all Europe, if Prussianism is to walk rough-shod over +civilisation, if France is to be crushed and Belgium murdered, then life +is not worth having. Compared with such an issue as that no other issue, +no other interest matters. Yet what are we doing to decide it--you and +I? How can it end in anything but a German triumph if you and I, by the +million, stand by...." + +He paused despairfully and stared at the map. + +"What ought we to be doing?" asked Mr. Manning. + +"Every man ought to be in training," said Mr. Britling. "Every one ought +to be participating.... In some way.... At any rate we ought not to be +taking our ease at Matching's Easy any more...." + + +Section 18 + +"It interrupts everything," said Hugh suddenly. "These Prussians are the +biggest nuisance the world has ever seen." + +He considered. "It's like every one having to run out because the house +catches fire. But of course we have to beat them. It has to be done. And +every one has to take a share. + +"Then we can get on with our work again." + +Mr. Britling turned his eyes to his eldest son with a startled +expression. He had been speaking--generally. For the moment he had +forgotten Hugh. + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +TAKING PART + + +Section 1 + +There were now two chief things in the mind of Mr. Britling. One was a +large and valiant thing, a thing of heroic and processional quality, the +idea of taking up one's share in the great conflict, of leaving the +Dower House and its circle of habits and activities and going out--. +From that point he wasn't quite sure where he was to go, nor exactly +what he meant to do. His imagination inclined to the figure of a +volunteer in an improvised uniform inflicting great damage upon a +raiding invader from behind a hedge. The uniform, one presumes, would +have been something in the vein of the costume in which he met Mr. +Direck. With a "brassard." Or he thought of himself as working at a +telephone or in an office engaged upon any useful quasi-administrative +work that called for intelligence rather than training. Still, of +course, with a "brassard." A month ago he would have had doubts about +the meaning of "brassard"; now it seemed to be the very keyword for +national organisation. He had started for London by the early train on +Monday morning with the intention of immediate enrolment in any such +service that offered; of getting, in fact, into his brassard at once. +The morning papers he bought at the station dashed his conviction of the +inevitable fall of Paris into hopeful doubts, but did not shake his +resolution. The effect of rout and pursuit and retreat and retreat and +retreat had disappeared from the news. The German right was being +counter-attacked, and seemed in danger of getting pinched between Paris +and Verdun with the British on its flank. This relieved his mind, but +it did nothing to modify his new realisation of the tremendous gravity +of the war. Even if the enemy were held and repulsed a little there was +still work for every man in the task of forcing them back upon their own +country. This war was an immense thing, it would touch everybody.... +That meant that every man must give himself. That he had to give +himself. He must let nothing stand between him and that clear +understanding. It was utterly shameful now to hold back and not to do +one's utmost for civilisation, for England, for all the ease and safety +one had been given--against these drilled, commanded, obsessed millions. + +Mr. Britling was a flame of exalted voluntaryism, of patriotic devotion, +that day. + +But behind all this bravery was the other thing, the second thing in the +mind of Mr. Britling, a fear. He was prepared now to spread himself like +some valiant turkey-gobbler, every feather at its utmost, against the +aggressor. He was prepared to go out and flourish bayonets, march and +dig to the limit of his power, shoot, die in a ditch if needful, rather +than permit German militarism to dominate the world. He had no fear for +himself. He was prepared to perish upon the battlefield or cut a valiant +figure in the military hospital. But what he perceived very clearly and +did his utmost not to perceive was this qualifying and discouraging +fact, that the war monster was not nearly so disposed to meet him as he +was to meet the war, and that its eyes were fixed on something beside +and behind him, that it was already only too evidently stretching out a +long and shadowy arm past him towards Teddy--and towards Hugh.... + +The young are the food of war.... + +Teddy wasn't Mr. Britling's business anyhow. Teddy must do as he thought +proper. Mr. Britling would not even advise upon that. And as for Hugh-- + +Mr. Britling did his best to brazen it out. + +"My eldest boy is barely seventeen," he said. "He's keen to go, and I'd +be sorry if he wasn't. He'll get into some cadet corps of course--he's +already done something of that kind at school. Or they'll take him into +the Territorials. But before he's nineteen everything will be over, one +way or another. I'm afraid, poor chap, he'll feel sold...." + +And having thrust Hugh safely into the background of his mind +as--juvenile, doing a juvenile share, no sort of man yet--Mr. Britling +could give a free rein to his generous imaginations of a national +uprising. From the idea of a universal participation in the struggle he +passed by an easy transition to an anticipation of all Britain armed and +gravely embattled. Across gulfs of obstinate reality. He himself was +prepared to say, and accordingly he felt that the great mass of the +British must be prepared to say to the government: "Here we are at your +disposal. This is not a diplomatists' war nor a War Office war; this is +a war of the whole people. We are all willing and ready to lay aside our +usual occupations and offer our property and ourselves. Whim and +individual action are for peace times. Take us and use us as you think +fit. Take all we possess." When he thought of the government in this +way, he forgot the governing class he knew. The slack-trousered Raeburn, +the prim, attentive Philbert, Lady Frensham at the top of her voice, +stern, preposterous Carson, boozy Bandershoot and artful Taper, wily +Asquith, the eloquent yet unsubstantial George, and the immobile Grey, +vanished out of his mind; all those representative exponents of the way +things are done in Great Britain faded in the glow of his imaginative +effort; he forgot the dreary debates, the floundering newspapers, the +"bluffs," the intrigues, the sly bargains of the week-end party, the +"schoolboy honour" of grown men, the universal weak dishonesty in +thinking; he thought simply of a simplified and ideal government that +governed. He thought vaguely of something behind and beyond them, +England, the ruling genius of the land; something with a dignified +assurance and a stable will. He imagined this shadowy ruler miraculously +provided with schemes and statistics against this supreme occasion which +had for so many years been the most conspicuous probability before the +country. His mind leaping forwards to the conception of a great nation +reluctantly turning its vast resources to the prosecution of a righteous +defensive war, filled in the obvious corollaries of plan and +calculation. He thought that somewhere "up there" there must be people +who could count and who had counted everything that we might need for +such a struggle, and organisers who had schemed and estimated down to +practicable and manageable details.... + +Such lapses from knowledge to faith are perhaps necessary that human +heroism may be possible.... + +His conception of his own share in the great national uprising was a +very modest one. He was a writer, a footnote to reality; he had no trick +of command over men, his role was observation rather than organisation, +and he saw himself only as an insignificant individual dropping from his +individuality into his place in a great machine, taking a rifle in a +trench, guarding a bridge, filling a cartridge--just with a brassard or +something like that on--until the great task was done. Sunday night was +full of imaginations of order, of the countryside standing up to its +task, of roads cleared and resources marshalled, of the petty interests +of the private life altogether set aside. And mingling with that it was +still possible for Mr. Britling, he was still young enough, to produce +such dreams of personal service, of sudden emergencies swiftly and +bravely met, of conspicuous daring and exceptional rewards, such dreams +as hover in the brains of every imaginative recruit.... + +The detailed story of Mr. Britling's two days' search for some easy and +convenient ladder into the service of his threatened country would be a +voluminous one. It would begin with the figure of a neatly brushed +patriot, with an intent expression upon his intelligent face, seated in +the Londonward train, reading the war news--the first comforting war +news for many days--and trying not to look as though his life was torn +up by the roots and all his being aflame with devotion; and it would +conclude after forty-eight hours of fuss, inquiry, talk, waiting, +telephoning, with the same gentleman, a little fagged and with a kind of +weary apathy in his eyes, returning by the short cut from the station +across Claverings park to resume his connection with his abandoned +roots. The essential process of the interval had been the correction of +Mr. Britling's temporary delusion that the government of the British +Empire is either intelligent, instructed, or wise. + +The great "Business as Usual" phase was already passing away, and London +was in the full tide of recruiting enthusiasm. That tide was breaking +against the most miserable arrangements for enlistment it is possible to +imagine. Overtaxed and not very competent officers, whose one idea of +being very efficient was to refuse civilian help and be very, very slow +and circumspect and very dignified and overbearing, sat in dirty little +rooms and snarled at this unheard-of England that pressed at door and +window for enrolment. Outside every recruiting office crowds of men and +youths waited, leaning against walls, sitting upon the pavements, waited +for long hours, waiting to the end of the day and returning next +morning, without shelter, without food, many sick with hunger; men who +had hurried up from the country, men who had thrown up jobs of every +kind, clerks, shopmen, anxious only to serve England and "teach those +damned Germans a lesson." Between them and this object they had +discovered a perplexing barrier; an inattention. As Mr. Britling made +his way by St. Martin's Church and across Trafalgar Square and marked +the weary accumulation of this magnificently patriotic stuff, he had his +first inkling of the imaginative insufficiency of the War Office that +had been so suddenly called upon to organise victory. He was to be more +fully informed when he reached his club. + +His impression of the streets through which he passed was an impression +of great unrest. There were noticeably fewer omnibuses and less road +traffic generally, but there was a quite unusual number of drifting +pedestrians. The current on the pavements was irritatingly sluggish. +There were more people standing about, and fewer going upon their +business. This was particularly the case with the women he saw. Many of +them seemed to have drifted in from the suburbs and outskirts of London +in a state of vague expectation, unable to stay in their homes. + +Everywhere there were the flags of the Allies; in shop windows, over +doors, on the bonnets of automobiles, on people's breasts, and there was +a great quantity of recruiting posters on the hoardings and in windows: +"Your King and Country Need You" was the chief text, and they still +called for "A Hundred Thousand Men" although the demand of Lord +Kitchener had risen to half a million. There were also placards calling +for men on nearly all the taxicabs. The big windows of the offices of +the Norddeutscher Lloyd in Cockspur Street were boarded up, and +plastered thickly with recruiting appeals. + +At his club Mr. Britling found much talk and belligerent stir. In the +hall Wilkins the author was displaying a dummy rifle of bent iron rod to +several interested members. It was to be used for drilling until rifles +could be got, and it could be made for eighteen pence. This was the +first intimation Mr. Britling got that the want of foresight of the War +Office only began with its unpreparedness for recruits. Men were talking +very freely in the club; one of the temporary effects of the war in its +earlier stages was to produce a partial thaw in the constitutional +British shyness; and men who had glowered at Mr. Britling over their +lunches and had been glowered at by Mr. Britling in silence for years +now started conversations with him. + +"What is a man of my sort to do?" asked a clean-shaven barrister. + +"Exactly what I have been asking," said Mr. Britling. "They are fixing +the upward age for recruits at thirty; it's absurdly low. A man well +over forty like myself is quite fit to line a trench or guard a bridge. +I'm not so bad a shot...." + +"We've been discussing home defence volunteers," said the barrister. +"Anyhow we ought to be drilling. But the War Office sets its face as +sternly against our doing anything of the sort as though we were going +to join the Germans. It's absurd. Even if we older men aren't fit to go +abroad, we could at least release troops who could." + +"If you had the rifles," said a sharp-featured man in grey to the right +of Mr. Britling. + +"I suppose they are to be got," said Mr. Britling. + +The sharp-featured man indicated by appropriate facial action and +head-shaking that this was by no means the case. + +"Every dead man, many wounded men, most prisoners," he said, "mean each +one a rifle lost. We have lost five-and-twenty thousand rifles alone +since the war began. Quite apart from arming new troops we have to +replace those rifles with the drafts we send out. Do you know what is +the maximum weekly output of rifles at the present time in this +country?" + +Mr. Britling did not know. + +"Nine thousand." + +Mr. Britling suddenly understood the significance of Wilkins and his +dummy gun. + +The sharp-featured man added with an air of concluding the matter: "It's +the barrels are the trouble. Complicated machinery. We haven't got it +and we can't make it in a hurry. And there you are!" + +The sharp-featured man had a way of speaking almost as if he was +throwing bombs. He threw one now. "Zinc," he said. + +"We're not short of zinc?" said the lawyer. + +The sharp-featured man nodded, and then became explicit. + +Zinc was necessary for cartridges; it had to be refined zinc and very +pure, or the shooting went wrong. Well, we had let the refining business +drift away from England to Belgium and Germany. There were just one or +two British firms still left.... Unless we bucked up tremendously we +should get caught short of cartridges.... At any rate of cartridges so +made as to ensure good shooting. "And there you are!" said the +sharp-featured man. + +But the sharp-featured man did not at that time represent any +considerable section of public thought. "I suppose after all we can get +rifles from America," said the lawyer. "And as for zinc, if the shortage +is known the shortage will be provided for...." + +The prevailing topic in the smoking-room upstairs was the inability of +the War Office to deal with the flood of recruits that was pouring in, +and its hostility to any such volunteering as Mr. Britling had in mind. +Quite a number of members wanted to volunteer; there was much talk of +their fitness; "I'm fifty-four," said one, "and I could do my +twenty-five miles in marching kit far better than half those boys of +nineteen." Another was thirty-eight. "I must hold the business +together," he said; "but why anyhow shouldn't I learn to shoot and use a +bayonet?" The personal pique of the rejected lent force to their +criticisms of the recruiting and general organisation. "The War Office +has one incurable system," said a big mine-owner. "During peace time it +runs all its home administration with men who will certainly be wanted +at the front directly there is a war. Directly war comes, therefore, +there is a shift all round, and a new untried man--usually a dug-out in +an advanced state of decay--is stuck into the job. Chaos follows +automatically. The War Office always has done this, and so far as one +can see it always will. It seems incapable of realising that another +man will be wanted until the first is taken away. Its imagination +doesn't even run to that." + +Mr. Britling found a kindred spirit in Wilkins. + +Wilkins was expounding his tremendous scheme for universal volunteering. +Everybody was to be accepted. Everybody was to be assigned and +registered and--_badged_. + +"A brassard," said Mr. Britling. + +"It doesn't matter whether we really produce a fighting force or not," +said Wilkins. "Everybody now is enthusiastic--and serious. Everybody is +willing to put on some kind of uniform and submit to some sort of +orders. And the thing to do is to catch them in the willing stage. Now +is the time to get the country lined up and organised, ready to meet the +internal stresses that are bound to come later. But there's no +disposition whatever to welcome this universal offering. It's just as +though this war was a treat to which only the very select friends of the +War Office were to be admitted. And I don't admit that the national +volunteers would be ineffective--even from a military point of view. +There are plenty of fit men of our age, and men of proper age who are +better employed at home--armament workers for example, and there are all +the boys under the age. They may not be under the age before things are +over...." + +He was even prepared to plan uniforms. + +"A brassard," repeated Mr. Britling, "and perhaps coloured strips on the +revers of a coat." + +"Colours for the counties," said Wilkins, "and if there isn't coloured +cloth to be got there's--red flannel. Anything is better than leaving +the mass of people to mob about...." + +A momentary vision danced before Mr. Britling's eyes of red flannel +petticoats being torn up in a rapid improvisation of soldiers to resist +a sudden invasion. Passing washerwomen suddenly requisitioned. But one +must not let oneself be laughed out of good intentions because of +ridiculous accessories. The idea at any rate was the sound one.... + +The vision of what ought to be done shone brightly while Mr. Britling +and Mr. Wilkins maintained it. But presently under discouraging +reminders that there were no rifles, no instructors, and, above all, the +open hostility of the established authorities, it faded again.... + +Afterwards in other conversations Mr. Britling reverted to more modest +ambitions. + +"Is there no clerical work, no minor administrative work, a man might be +used for?" he asked. + +"Any old dug-out," said the man with the thin face, "any old doddering +Colonel Newcome, is preferred to you in that matter...." + +Mr. Britling emerged from his club about half-past three with his mind +rather dishevelled and with his private determination to do something +promptly for his country's needs blunted by a perplexing "How?" His +search for doors and ways where no doors and ways existed went on with a +gathering sense of futility. + +He had a ridiculous sense of pique at being left out, like a child shut +out from a room in which a vitally interesting game is being played. + +"After all, it is _our_ war," he said. + +He caught the phrase as it dropped from his lips with a feeling that it +said more than he intended. He turned it over and examined it, and the +more he did so the more he was convinced of its truth and soundness.... + + +Section 2 + +By night there was a new strangeness about London. The authorities were +trying to suppress the more brilliant illumination of the chief +thoroughfares, on account of the possibility of an air raid. Shopkeepers +were being compelled to pull down their blinds, and many of the big +standard lights were unlit. Mr. Britling thought these precautions were +very fussy and unnecessary, and likely to lead to accidents amidst the +traffic. But it gave a Rembrandtesque quality to the London scene, +turned it into mysterious arrangements of brown shadows and cones and +bars of light. At first many people were recalcitrant, and here and +there a restaurant or a draper's window still blazed out and broke the +gloom. There were also a number of insubordinate automobiles with big +head-lights. But the police were being unusually firm.... + +"It will all glitter again in a little time," he told himself. + +He heard an old lady who was projecting from an offending automobile at +Piccadilly Circus in hot dispute with a police officer. "Zeppelins +indeed!" she said. "What nonsense! As if they would _dare_ to come here! +Who would _let_ them, I should like to know?" + +Probably a friend of Lady Frensham's, he thought. Still--the idea of +Zeppelins over London did seem rather ridiculous to Mr. Britling. He +would not have liked to have been caught talking of it himself.... There +never had been Zeppelins over London. They were gas bags.... + + +Section 3 + +On Wednesday morning Mr. Britling returned to the Dower House, and he +was still a civilian unassigned. + +In the hall he found a tall figure in khaki standing and reading _The +Times_ that usually lay upon the hall table. The figure turned at Mr. +Britling's entry, and revealed the aquiline features of Mr. Lawrence +Carmine. It was as if his friend had stolen a march on him. + +But Carmine's face showed nothing of the excitement and patriotic +satisfaction that would have seemed natural to Mr. Britling. He was +white and jaded, as if he had not slept for many nights. "You see," he +explained almost apologetically of the three stars upon his sleeve, "I +used to be a captain of volunteers." He had been put in charge of a +volunteer force which had been re-embodied and entrusted with the care +of the bridges, gasworks, factories and railway tunnels, and with a +number of other minor but necessary duties round about Easinghampton. +"I've just got to shut up my house," said Captain Carmine, "and go into +lodgings. I confess I hate it.... But anyhow it can't last six +months.... But it's beastly.... Ugh!..." + +He seemed disposed to expand that "Ugh," and then thought better of it. +And presently Mr. Britling took control of the conversation. + +His two days in London had filled him with matter, and he was glad to +have something more than Hugh and Teddy and Mrs. Britling to talk it +upon. What was happening now in Great Britain, he declared, was +_adjustment_. It was an attempt on the part of a great unorganised +nation, an attempt, instinctive at present rather than intelligent, to +readjust its government and particularly its military organisation to +the new scale of warfare that Germany had imposed upon the world. For +two strenuous decades the British navy had been growing enormously under +the pressure of German naval preparations, but the British military +establishment had experienced no corresponding expansion. It was true +there had been a futile, rather foolishly conducted agitation for +universal military service, but there had been no accumulation of +material, no preparation of armament-making machinery, no planning and +no foundations for any sort of organisation that would have facilitated +the rapid expansion of the fighting forces of a country in a time of +crisis. Such an idea was absolutely antagonistic to the mental habits of +the British military caste. The German method of incorporating all the +strength and resources of the country into one national fighting machine +was quite strange to the British military mind--still. Even after a +month of war. War had become the comprehensive business of the German +nation; to the British it was an incidental adventure. In Germany the +nation was militarised, in England the army was specialised. The nation +for nearly every practical purpose got along without it. Just as +political life had also become specialised.... Now suddenly we wanted a +government to speak for every one, and an army of the whole people. How +were we to find it? + +Mr. Britling dwelt upon this idea of the specialised character of the +British army and navy and government. It seemed to him to be the clue to +everything that was jarring in the London spectacle. The army had been a +thing aloof, for a special end. It had developed all the characteristics +of a caste. It had very high standards along the lines of its +specialisation, but it was inadaptable and conservative. Its +exclusiveness was not so much a deliberate culture as a consequence of +its detached function. It touched the ordinary social body chiefly +through three other specialised bodies, the court, the church, and the +stage. Apart from that it saw the great unofficial civilian world as +something vague, something unsympathetic, something possibly +antagonistic, which it comforted itself by snubbing when it dared and +tricking when it could, something that projected members of Parliament +towards it and was stingy about money. Directly one grasped how apart +the army lived from the ordinary life of the community, from +industrialism or from economic necessities, directly one understood that +the great mass of Englishmen were simply "outsiders" to the War Office +mind, just as they were "outsiders" to the political clique, one began +to realise the complete unfitness of either government or War Office for +the conduct of so great a national effort as was now needed. These +people "up there" did not know anything of the broad mass of English +life at all, they did not know how or where things were made; when they +wanted things they just went to a shop somewhere and got them. This was +the necessary psychology of a small army under a clique government. +Nothing else was to be expected. But now--somehow--the nation had to +take hold of the government that it had neglected so long.... + +"You see," said Mr. Britling, repeating a phrase that was becoming more +and more essential to his thoughts, "this is _our_ war.... + +"Of course," said Mr. Britling, "these things are not going to be done +without a conflict. We aren't going to take hold of our country which we +have neglected so long without a lot of internal friction. But in +England we can make these readjustments without revolution. It is our +strength.... + +"At present England is confused--but it's a healthy confusion. It's +astir. We have more things to defeat than just Germany.... + +"These hosts of recruits--weary, uncared for, besieging the recruiting +stations. It's symbolical.... Our tremendous reserves of will and +manhood. Our almost incredible insufficiency of direction.... + +"Those people up there have no idea of the Will that surges up in +England. They are timid little manoeuvring people, afraid of property, +afraid of newspapers, afraid of trade-unions. They aren't leading us +against the Germans; they are just being shoved against the Germans by +necessity...." + +From this Mr. Britling broke away into a fresh addition to his already +large collection of contrasts between England and Germany. Germany was a +nation which has been swallowed up and incorporated by an army and an +administration; the Prussian military system had assimilated to itself +the whole German life. It was a State in a state of repletion, a State +that had swallowed all its people. Britain was not a State. It was an +unincorporated people. The British army, the British War Office, and the +British administration had assimilated nothing; they were little old +partial things; the British nation lay outside them, beyond their +understanding and tradition; a formless new thing, but a great thing; +and now this British nation, this real nation, the "outsiders," had to +take up arms. Suddenly all the underlying ideas of that outer, greater +English life beyond politics, beyond the services, were challenged, its +tolerant good humour, its freedom, and its irresponsibility. It was not +simply English life that was threatened; it was all the latitudes of +democracy, it was every liberal idea and every liberty. It was +civilisation in danger. The uncharted liberal system had been taken by +the throat; it had to "make good" or perish.... + +"I went up to London expecting to be told what to do. There is no one to +tell any one what to do.... Much less is there any one to compel us what +to do.... + +"There's a War Office like a college during a riot, with its doors and +windows barred; there's a government like a cockle boat in an Atlantic +gale.... + +"One feels the thing ought to have come upon us like the sound of a +trumpet. Instead, until now, it has been like a great noise, that we +just listened to, in the next house.... And now slowly the nation +awakes. London is just like a dazed sleeper waking up out of a deep +sleep to fire and danger, tumult and cries for help, near at hand. The +streets give you exactly that effect. People are looking about and +listening. One feels that at any moment, in a pause, in a silence, there +may come, from far away, over the houses, faint and little, the boom of +guns or the small outcries of little French or Belgian villages in +agony...." + +Such was the gist of Mr. Britling's discourse. + +He did most of the table talk, and all that mattered. Teddy was an +assenting voice, Hugh was silent and apparently a little inattentive, +Mrs. Britling was thinking of the courses and the servants and the boys, +and giving her husband only half an ear, Captain Carmine said little and +seemed to be troubled by some disagreeable preoccupation. Now and then +he would endorse or supplement the things Mr. Britling was saying. +Thrice he remarked: "People still do not begin to understand."... + + +Section 4 +It was only when they sat together in the barn court out of the way of +Mrs. Britling and the children that Captain Carmine was able to explain +his listless bearing and jaded appearance. He was suffering from a bad +nervous shock. He had hardly taken over his command before one of his +men had been killed--and killed in a manner that had left a scar upon +his mind. + +The man had been guarding a tunnel, and he had been knocked down by one +train when crossing the line behind another. So it was that the bomb of +Sarajevo killed its first victim in Essex. Captain Carmine had found the +body. He had found the body in a cloudy moonlight; he had almost fallen +over it; and his sensations and emotions had been eminently +disagreeable. He had had to drag the body--it was very dreadfully +mangled--off the permanent way, the damaged, almost severed head had +twisted about very horribly in the uncertain light, and afterwards he +had found his sleeves saturated with blood. He had not noted this at the +time, and when he had discovered it he had been sick. He had thought the +whole thing more horrible and hateful than any nightmare, but he had +succeeded in behaving with a sufficient practicality to set an example +to his men. Since this had happened he had not had an hour of dreamless +sleep. + +"One doesn't expect to be called upon like that," said Captain Carmine, +"suddenly here in England.... When one is smoking after supper...." + +Mr. Britling listened to this experience with distressed brows. All his +talking and thinking became to him like the open page of a monthly +magazine. Across it this bloody smear, this thing of red and black, was +dragged.... + + +Section 5 + +The smear was still bright red in Mr. Britling's thoughts when Teddy +came to him. + +"I must go," said Teddy, "I can't stop here any longer." + +"Go where?" + +"Into khaki. I've been thinking of it ever since the war began. Do you +remember what you said when we were bullying off at hockey on Bank +Holiday--the day before war was declared?" + +Mr. Britling had forgotten completely; he made an effort. "What did I +say?" + +"You said, 'What the devil are we doing at this hockey? We ought to be +drilling or shooting against those confounded Germans!' ... I've never +forgotten it.... I ought to have done it before. I've been a +scout-master. In a little while they will want officers. In London, I'm +told, there are a lot of officers' training corps putting men through +the work as quickly as possible.... If I could go...." + +"What does Letty think?" said Mr. Britling after a pause. This was +right, of course--the only right thing--and yet he was surprised. + +"She says if you'd let her try to do my work for a time...." + +"She _wants_ you to go?" + +"Of course she does," said Teddy. "She wouldn't like me to be a +shirker.... But I can't unless you help." + +"I'm quite ready to do that," said Mr. Britling. "But somehow I didn't +think it of you. I hadn't somehow thought of _you_--" + +"What _did_ you think of me?" asked Teddy. + +"It's bringing the war home to us.... Of course you ought to go--if you +want to go." + +He reflected. It was odd to find Teddy in this mood, strung up and +serious and businesslike. He felt that in the past he had done Teddy +injustice; this young man wasn't as trivial as he had thought him.... + +They fell to discussing ways and means; there might have to be a loan +for Teddy's outfit, if he did presently secure a commission. And there +were one or two other little matters.... Mr. Britling dismissed a +ridiculous fancy that he was paying to send Teddy away to something that +neither that young man nor Letty understood properly.... + +The next day Teddy vanished Londonward on his bicycle. He was going to +lodge in London in order to be near his training. He was zealous. Never +before had Teddy been zealous. Mrs. Teddy came to the Dower House for +the correspondence, trying not to look self-conscious and important. + +Two Mondays later a very bright-eyed, excited little boy came running to +Mr. Britling, who was smoking after lunch in the rose garden. "Daddy!" +squealed the small boy. "Teddy! In khaki!" + +The other junior Britling danced in front of the hero, who was walking +beside Mrs. Britling and trying not to be too aggressively a soldierly +figure. He looked a very man in khaki and more of a boy than ever. Mrs. +Teddy came behind, quietly elated. + +Mr. Britling had a recurrence of that same disagreeable fancy that these +young people didn't know exactly what they were going into. He wished he +was in khaki himself; then he fancied this compunction wouldn't trouble +him quite so much. + +The afternoon with them deepened his conviction that they really didn't +in the slightest degree understand. Life had been so good to them +hitherto, that even the idea of Teddy's going off to the war seemed a +sort of fun to them. It was just a thing he was doing, a serious, +seriously amusing, and very creditable thing. It involved his dressing +up in these unusual clothes, and receiving salutes in the street.... +They discussed every possible aspect of his military outlook with the +zest of children, who recount the merits of a new game. They were +putting Teddy through his stages at a tremendous pace. In quite a little +time he thought he would be given the chance of a commission. + +"They want subalterns badly. Already they've taken nearly a third of our +people," he said, and added with the wistfulness of one who glances at +inaccessible delights: "one or two may get out to the front quite soon." + +He spoke as a young actor might speak of a star part. And with a touch +of the quality of one who longs to travel in strange lands.... One must +be patient. Things come at last.... + +"If I'm killed she gets eighty pounds a year," Teddy explained among +many other particulars. + +He smiled--the smile of a confident immortal at this amusing idea. + +"He's my little annuity," said Letty, also smiling, "dead or alive." + +"We'll miss Teddy in all sorts of ways," said Mr. Britling. + +"It's only for the duration of the war," said Teddy. "And Letty's very +intelligent. I've done my best to chasten the evil in her." + +"If you think you're going to get back your job after the war," said +Letty, "you're very much mistaken. I'm going to raise the standard." + +"_You_!" said Teddy, regarding her coldly, and proceeded ostentatiously +to talk of other things. + + +Section 6 + +"Hugh's going to be in khaki too," the elder junior told Teddy. "He's +too young to go out in Kitchener's army, but he's joined the +Territorials. He went off on Thursday.... I wish Gilbert and me was +older...." + +Mr. Britling had known his son's purpose since the evening of Teddy's +announcement. + +Hugh had come to his father's study as he was sitting musing at his +writing-desk over the important question whether he should continue his +"Examination of War" uninterruptedly, or whether he should not put that +on one side for a time and set himself to state as clearly as possible +the not too generally recognised misfit between the will and strength of +Britain on the one hand and her administrative and military organisation +on the other. He felt that an enormous amount of human enthusiasm and +energy was being refused and wasted; that if things went on as they were +going there would continue to be a quite disastrous shortage of gear, +and that some broadening change was needed immediately if the swift +exemplary victory over Germany that his soul demanded was to be ensured. +Suppose he were to write some noisy articles at once, an article, for +instance, to be called "The War of the Mechanics" or "The War of Gear," +and another on "Without Civil Strength there is no Victory." If he wrote +such things would they be noted or would they just vanish +indistinguishably into the general mental tumult? Would they be audible +and helpful shouts, or just waste of shouting?... That at least was what +he supposed himself to be thinking; it was, at any rate, the main +current of his thinking; but all the same, just outside the circle of +his attention a number of other things were dimly apprehended, bobbing +up and down in the flood and ready at the slightest chance to swirl into +the centre of his thoughts. There was, for instance, Captain Carmine in +the moonlight lugging up a railway embankment something horrible, +something loose and wet and warm that had very recently been a man. +There was Teddy, serious and patriotic--filling a futile penman with +incredulous respect. There was the thin-faced man at the club, and a +curious satisfaction he had betrayed in the public disarrangement. And +there was Hugh. Particularly there was Hugh, silent but watchful. The +boy never babbled. He had his mother's gift of deep dark silences. Out +of which she was wont to flash, a Black Princess waving a sword. He +wandered for a little while among memories.... But Hugh didn't come out +like that, though it always seemed possible he might--perhaps he didn't +come out because he was a son. Revelation to his father wasn't his +business.... What was he thinking of it all? What was he going to do? +Mr. Britling was acutely anxious that his son should volunteer; he was +almost certain that he would volunteer, but there was just a little +shadow of doubt whether some extraordinary subtlety of mind mightn't +have carried the boy into a pacifist attitude. No! that was impossible. +In the face of Belgium.... But as greatly--and far more deeply in the +warm flesh of his being--did Mr. Britling desire that no harm, no evil +should happen to Hugh.... + +The door opened, and Hugh came in.... + +Mr. Britling glanced over his shoulder with an affectation of +indifference. "Hal-_lo!_" he said. "What do you want?" + +Hugh walked awkwardly to the hearthrug. + +"Oh!" he said in an off-hand tone; "I suppose I've got to go soldiering +for a bit. I just thought--I'd rather like to go off with a man I know +to-morrow...." + +Mr. Britling's manner remained casual. + +"It's the only thing to do now, I'm afraid," he said. + +He turned in his chair and regarded his son. "What do you mean to do? +O.T.C.?" + +"I don't think I should make much of an officer. I hate giving orders to +other people. We thought we'd just go together into the Essex Regiment +as privates...." + +There was a little pause. Both father and son had rehearsed this scene +in their minds several times, and now they found that they had no use +for a number of sentences that had been most effective in these +rehearsals. Mr. Britling scratched his cheek with the end of his pen. +"I'm glad you want to go, Hugh," he said. + +"I _don't_ want to go," said Hugh with his hands deep in his pockets. "I +want to go and work with Cardinal. But this job has to be done by every +one. Haven't you been saying as much all day?... It's like turning out +to chase a burglar or suppress a mad dog. It's like necessary +sanitation...." + +"You aren't attracted by soldiering?" + +"Not a bit. I won't pretend it, Daddy. I think the whole business is a +bore. Germany seems to me now just like some heavy horrible dirty mass +that has fallen across Belgium and France. We've got to shove the stuff +back again. That's all...." + +He volunteered some further remarks to his father's silence. + +"You know I can't get up a bit of tootle about this business," he said. +"I think killing people or getting killed is a thoroughly nasty +habit.... I expect my share will be just drilling and fatigue duties and +route marches, and loafing here in England...." + +"You can't possibly go out for two years," said Mr. Britling, as if he +regretted it. + +A slight hesitation appeared in Hugh's eyes. "I suppose not," he said. + +"Things ought to be over by then--anyhow," Mr. Britling added, betraying +his real feelings. + +"So it's really just helping at the furthest end of the shove," Hugh +endorsed, but still with that touch of reservation in his manner.... + +The pause had the effect of closing the theoretical side of the +question. "Where do you propose to enlist?" said Mr. Britling, coming +down to practical details. + + +Section 7 + +The battle of the Marne passed into the battle of the Aisne, and then +the long lines of the struggle streamed north-westward until the British +were back in Belgium failing to clutch Menin and then defending Ypres. +The elation of September followed the bedazzlement and dismay of August +into the chapter of forgotten moods; and Mr. Britling's sense of the +magnitude, the weight and duration of this war beyond all wars, +increased steadily. The feel of it was less and less a feeling of crisis +and more and more a feeling of new conditions. It wasn't as it had +seemed at first, the end of one human phase and the beginning of +another; it was in itself a phase. It was a new way of living. And still +he could find no real point of contact for himself with it all except +the point of his pen. Only at his writing-desk, and more particularly at +night, were the great presences of the conflict his. Yet he was always +desiring some more personal and physical participation. + +Hugh came along one day in October in an ill-fitting uniform, looking +already coarser in fibre and with a nose scorched red by the autumnal +sun. He said the life was rough, but it made him feel extraordinarily +well; perhaps man was made to toil until he dropped asleep from +exhaustion, to fast for ten or twelve hours and then eat like a wolf. He +was acquiring a taste for Woodbine cigarettes, and a heady variety of +mineral waters called Monsters. He feared promotion; he felt he could +never take the high line with other human beings demanded of a corporal. +He was still trying to read a little chemistry and crystallography, but +it didn't "go with the life." In the scanty leisure of a recruit in +training it was more agreeable to lie about and write doggerel verses +and draw caricatures of the men in one's platoon. Invited to choose what +he liked by his family, he demanded a large tuckbox such as he used to +have at school, only "_much_ larger," and a big tin of insect powder. +It must be able to kill ticks.... + +When he had gone, the craving for a personal share in the nation's +physical exertions became overpowering in Mr. Britling. He wanted, he +felt, to "get his skin into it." He had decided that the volunteer +movement was a hopeless one. The War Office, after a stout resistance to +any volunteer movement at all, decided to recognise it in such a manner +as to make it ridiculous. The volunteers were to have no officers and no +uniforms that could be remotely mistaken for those of the regulars, so +that in the event of an invasion the Germans would be able to tell what +they had to deal with miles away. Wilkins found his conception of a +whole nation, all enrolled, all listed and badged according to capacity, +his dream of every one falling into place in one great voluntary +national effort, treated as the childish dreaming of that most ignorant +of all human types, a "novelist." _Punch_ was delicately funny about +him; he was represented as wearing a preposterous cocked hat of his own +design, designing cocked hats for every one. Wilkins was told to "shut +up" in a multitude of anonymous letters, and publicly and privately to +"leave things to Kitchener." To bellow in loud clear tones "leave things +to Kitchener," and to depart for the theatre or the river or an +automobile tour, was felt very generally at that time to be the proper +conduct for a patriot. There was a very general persuasion that to +become a volunteer when one ought to be just modestly doing nothing at +all, was in some obscure way a form of disloyalty.... + +So Mr. Britling was out of conceit with volunteering, and instead he +went and was duly sworn and entrusted with the badge of a special +constable. The duties of a special constable were chiefly not to +understand what was going on in the military sphere, and to do what he +was told in the way of watching and warding conceivably vulnerable +points. He had also to be available in the event of civil disorder. Mr. +Britling was provided with a truncheon and sent out to guard various +culverts, bridges, and fords in the hilly country to the north-westward +of Matching's Easy. It was never very clear to him what he would do if +he found a motor-car full of armed enemies engaged in undermining a +culvert, or treacherously deepening some strategic ford. He supposed he +would either engage them in conversation, or hit them with his +truncheon, or perhaps do both things simultaneously. But as he really +did not believe for a moment that any human being was likely to tamper +with the telegraphs, telephones, ways and appliances committed to his +care, his uncertainty did not trouble him very much. He prowled the +lonely lanes and paths in the darkness, and became better acquainted +with a multitude of intriguing little cries and noises that came from +the hedges and coverts at night. One night he rescued a young leveret +from a stoat, who seemed more than half inclined to give him battle for +its prey until he cowed and defeated it with the glare of his electric +torch.... + +As he prowled the countryside under the great hemisphere of Essex sky, +or leant against fences or sat drowsily upon gates or sheltered from +wind and rain under ricks or sheds, he had much time for meditation, and +his thoughts went down and down below his first surface impressions of +the war. He thought no longer of the rights and wrongs of this +particular conflict but of the underlying forces in mankind that made +war possible; he planned no more ingenious treaties and conventions +between the nations, and instead he faced the deeper riddles of +essential evil and of conceivable changes in the heart of man. And the +rain assailed him and thorns tore him, and the soaked soft meadows +bogged and betrayed his wandering feet, and the little underworld of the +hedges and ditches hissed and squealed in the darkness and pursued and +fled, and devoured or were slain. + +And one night in April he was perplexed by a commotion among the +pheasants and a barking of distant dogs, and then to his great +astonishment he heard noises like a distant firework display and saw +something like a phantom yellowish fountain-pen in the sky far away to +the east lit intermittently by a quivering search-light and going very +swiftly. And after he had rubbed his eyes and looked again, he realised +that he was looking at a Zeppelin--a Zeppelin flying Londonward over +Essex. + +And all that night was wonder.... + + +Section 8 + +While Mr. Britling was trying to find his duty in the routine of a +special constable, Mrs. Britling set to work with great energy to attend +various classes and qualify herself for Red Cross work. And early in +October came the great drive of the Germans towards Antwerp and the sea, +the great drive that was apparently designed to reach Calais, and which +swept before it multitudes of Flemish refugees. There was an exodus of +all classes from Antwerp into Holland and England, and then a huge +process of depopulation in Flanders and the Pas de Calais. This flood +came to the eastern and southern parts of England and particularly to +London, and there hastily improvised organisations distributed it to a +number of local committees, each of which took a share of the refugees, +hired and furnished unoccupied houses for the use of the penniless, and +assisted those who had means into comfortable quarters. The Matching's +Easy committee found itself with accommodation for sixty people, and +with a miscellaneous bag of thirty individuals entrusted to its care, +who had been part of the load of a little pirate steam-boat from Ostend. +There were two Flemish peasant families, and the rest were more or less +middle-class refugees from Antwerp. They were brought from the station +to the Tithe barn at Claverings, and there distributed, under the +personal supervision of Lady Homartyn and her agent, among those who +were prepared for their entertainment. There was something like +competition among the would-be hosts; everybody was glad of the chance +of "doing something," and anxious to show these Belgians what England +thought of their plucky little country. Mr. Britling was proud to lead +off a Mr. Van der Pant, a neat little bearded man in a black tail-coat, +a black bowler hat, and a knitted muffler, with a large rucksack and a +conspicuously foreign-looking bicycle, to the hospitalities of Dower +House. Mr. Van der Pant had escaped from Antwerp at the eleventh hour, +he had caught a severe cold and, it would seem, lost his wife and family +in the process; he had much to tell Mr. Britling, and in his zeal to +tell it he did not at once discover that though Mr. Britling knew French +quite well he did not know it very rapidly. + +The dinner that night at the Dower House marked a distinct fresh step in +the approach of the Great War to the old habits and securities of +Matching's Easy. The war had indeed filled every one's mind to the +exclusion of all other topics since its very beginning; it had carried +off Herr Heinrich to Germany, Teddy to London, and Hugh to Colchester, +it had put a special brassard round Mr. Britling's arm and carried him +out into the night, given Mrs. Britling several certificates, and +interrupted the frequent visits and gossip of Mr. Lawrence Carmine; but +so far it had not established a direct contact between the life of +Matching's Easy and the grim business of shot, shell, and bayonet at the +front. But now here was the Dower House accomplishing wonderful idioms +in Anglo-French, and an animated guest telling them--sometimes one +understood clearly and sometimes the meaning was clouded--of men blown +to pieces under his eyes, of fragments of human beings lying about in +the streets; there was trouble over the expression _omoplate d'une +femme_, until one of the youngsters got the dictionary and found out it +was the shoulder-blade of a woman; of pools of blood--everywhere--and +of flight in the darkness. + +Mr. Van der Pant had been in charge of the dynamos at the Antwerp Power +Station, he had been keeping the electrified wires in the entanglements +"alive," and he had stuck to his post until the German high explosives +had shattered his wires and rendered his dynamos useless. He gave vivid +little pictures of the noises of the bombardment, of the dead lying +casually in the open spaces, of the failure of the German guns to hit +the bridge of boats across which the bulk of the defenders and refugees +escaped. He produced a little tourist's map of the city of Antwerp, and +dotted at it with a pencil-case. "The--what do you call?--_obus_, ah, +shells! fell, so and so and so." Across here he had fled on his +_becane_, and along here and here. He had carried off his rifle, and hid +it with the rifles of various other Belgians between floor and ceiling +of a house in Zeebrugge. He had found the pirate steamer in the harbour, +its captain resolved to extract the uttermost fare out of every refugee +he took to London. When they were all aboard and started they found +there was no food except the hard ration biscuits of some Belgian +soldiers. They had portioned this out like shipwrecked people on a +raft.... The _mer_ had been _calme_; thank Heaven! All night they had +been pumping. He had helped with the pumps. But Mr. Van der Pant hoped +still to get a reckoning with the captain of that ship. + +Mr. Van der Pant had had shots at various Zeppelins. When the Zeppelins +came to Antwerp everybody turned out on the roofs and shot at them. He +was contemptuous of Zeppelins. He made derisive gestures to express his +opinion of them. They could do nothing unless they came low, and if they +came low you could hit them. One which ventured down had been riddled; +it had had to drop all its bombs--luckily they fell in an open field--in +order to make its lame escape. It was all nonsense to say, as the +English papers did, that they took part in the final bombardment. Not a +Zeppelin.... So he talked, and the Britling family listened and +understood as much as they could, and replied and questioned in +Anglo-French. Here was a man who but a few days ago had been steering +his bicycle in the streets of Antwerp to avoid shell craters, pools of +blood, and the torn-off arms and shoulder-blades of women. He had seen +houses flaring, set afire by incendiary bombs, and once at a corner he +had been knocked off his bicycle by the pouff of a bursting shell.... +Not only were these things in the same world with us, they were sitting +at our table. + +He told one grim story of an invalid woman unable to move, lying in bed +in her _appartement_, and of how her husband went out on the balcony to +look at the Zeppelin. There was a great noise of shooting. Ever and +again he would put his head back into the room and tell her things, and +then after a time he was silent and looked in no more. She called to +him, and called again. Becoming frightened, she raised herself by a +great effort and peered through the glass. At first she was too puzzled +to understand what had happened. He was hanging over the front of the +balcony, with his head twisted oddly. Twisted and shattered. He had been +killed by shrapnel fired from the outer fortifications.... + +These are the things that happen in histories and stories. They do not +happen at Matching's Easy.... + +Mr. Van der Pant did not seem to be angry with the Germans. But he +manifestly regarded them as people to be killed. He denounced nothing +that they had done; he related. They were just an evil accident that had +happened to Belgium and mankind. They had to be destroyed. He gave Mr. +Britling an extraordinary persuasion that knives were being sharpened in +every cellar in Brussels and Antwerp against the day of inevitable +retreat, of a resolution to exterminate the invader that was far too +deep to be vindictive.... And the man was most amazingly unconquered. +Mr. Britling perceived the label on his habitual dinner wine with a +slight embarrassment. "Do you care," he asked, "to drink a German wine? +This is Berncasteler from the Moselle." Mr. Van der Pant reflected. "But +it is a good wine," he said. "After the peace it will be Belgian.... +Yes, if we are to be safe in the future from such a war as this, we must +have our boundaries right up to the Rhine." + +So he sat and talked, flushed and, as it were, elated by the vividness +of all that he had undergone. He had no trace of tragic quality, no hint +of subjugation. But for his costume and his trimmed beard and his +language he might have been a Dubliner or a Cockney. + +He was astonishingly cut off from all his belongings. His house in +Antwerp was abandoned to the invader; valuables and cherished objects +very skilfully buried in the garden; he had no change of clothing except +what the rucksack held. His only footwear were the boots he came in. He +could not get on any of the slippers in the house, they were all too +small for him, until suddenly Mrs. Britling bethought herself of Herr +Heinrich's pair, still left unpacked upstairs. She produced them, and +they fitted exactly. It seemed only poetical justice, a foretaste of +national compensations, to annex them to Belgium forthwith.... + +Also it became manifest that Mr. Van der Pant was cut off from all his +family. And suddenly he became briskly critical of the English way of +doing things. His wife and child had preceded him to England, crossing +by Ostend and Folkestone a fortnight ago; her parents had come in +August; both groups had been seized upon by improvised British +organisations and very thoroughly and completely lost. He had written to +the Belgian Embassy and they had referred him to a committee in London, +and the committee had begun its services by discovering a Madame Van der +Pant hitherto unknown to him at Camberwell, and displaying a certain +suspicion and hostility when he said she would not do. There had been +some futile telegrams. "What," asked Mr. Van der Pant, "ought one to +do?" + +Mr. Britling temporised by saying he would "make inquiries," and put Mr. +Van der Pant off for two days. Then he decided to go up to London with +him and "make inquiries on the spot." Mr. Van der Pant did not discover +his family, but Mr. Britling discovered the profound truth of a comment +of Herr Heinrich's which he had hitherto considered utterly trivial, but +which had nevertheless stuck in his memory. "The English," Herr Heinrich +had said, "do not understanding indexing. It is the root of all good +organisation." + +Finally, Mr. Van der Pant adopted the irregular course of asking every +Belgian he met if they had seen any one from his district in Antwerp, if +they had heard of the name of "Van der Pant," if they had encountered +So-and-so or So-and-so. And by obstinacy and good fortune he really got +on to the track of Madame Van der Pant; she had been carried off into +Kent, and a day later the Dower House was the scene of a happy reunion. +Madame was a slender lady, dressed well and plainly, with a Belgian +common sense and a Catholic reserve, and Andre was like a child of wax, +delicate and charming and unsubstantial. It seemed incredible that he +could ever grow into anything so buoyant and incessant as his father. +The Britling boys had to be warned not to damage him. A sitting-room was +handed over to the Belgians for their private use, and for a time the +two families settled into the Dower House side by side. Anglo-French +became the table language of the household. It hampered Mr. Britling +very considerably. And both families set themselves to much unrecorded +observation, much unspoken mutual criticism, and the exercise of great +patience. It was tiresome for the English to be tied to a language that +crippled all spontaneous talk; these linguistic gymnastics were fun to +begin with, but soon they became very troublesome; and the Belgians +suspected sensibilities in their hosts and a vast unwritten code of +etiquette that did not exist; at first they were always waiting, as it +were, to be invited or told or included; they seemed always +deferentially backing out from intrusions. Moreover, they would not at +first reveal what food they liked or what they didn't like, or whether +they wanted more or less.... But these difficulties were soon smoothed +away, they Anglicised quickly and cleverly. Andre grew bold and +cheerful, and lost his first distrust of his rather older English +playmates. Every day at lunch he produced a new, carefully prepared +piece of English, though for some time he retained a marked preference +for "Good morning, Saire," and "Thank you very mush," over all other +locutions, and fell back upon them on all possible and many impossible +occasions. And he could do some sleight-of-hand tricks with remarkable +skill and humour, and fold paper with quite astonishing results. +Meanwhile Mr. Van der Pant sought temporary employment in England, went +for long rides upon his bicycle, exchanged views with Mr. Britling upon +a variety of subjects, and became a wonderful player of hockey. + +He played hockey with an extraordinary zest and nimbleness. Always he +played in the tail coat, and the knitted muffler was never relinquished; +he treated the game entirely as an occasion for quick tricks and +personal agility; he bounded about the field like a kitten, he +pirouetted suddenly, he leapt into the air and came down in new +directions; his fresh-coloured face was alive with delight, the coat +tails and the muffler trailed and swished about breathlessly behind his +agility. He never passed to other players; he never realised his +appointed place in the game; he sought simply to make himself a leaping +screen about the ball as he drove it towards the goal. But Andre he +would not permit to play at all, and Madame played like a lady, like a +Madonna, like a saint carrying the instrument of her martyrdom. The +game and its enthusiasms flowed round her and receded from her; she +remained quite valiant but tolerant, restrained; doing her best to do +the extraordinary things required of her, but essentially a being of +passive dignities, living chiefly for them; Letty careering by her, keen +and swift, was like a creature of a different species.... + +Mr. Britling cerebrated abundantly about these contrasts. + +"What has been blown in among us by these German shells," he said, "is +essentially a Catholic family. Blown clean out of its setting.... We who +are really--Neo-Europeans.... + +"At first you imagine there is nothing separating us but language. +Presently you find that language is the least of our separations. These +people are people living upon fundamentally different ideas from ours, +ideas far more definite and complete than ours. You imagine that home in +Antwerp as something much more rounded off, much more closed in, a cell, +a real social unit, a different thing altogether from this place of +meeting. Our boys play cheerfully with all comers; little Andre hasn't +learnt to play with any outside children at all. We must seem incredibly +_open_ to these Van der Pants. A house without sides.... Last Sunday I +could not find out the names of the two girls who came on bicycles and +played so well. They came with Kitty Westropp. And Van der Pant wanted +to know how they were related to us. Or how was it they came?... + +"Look at Madame. She's built on a fundamentally different plan from any +of our womenkind here. Tennis, the bicycle, co-education, the two-step, +the higher education of women.... Say these things over to yourself, and +think of her. It's like talking of a nun in riding breeches. She's a +specialised woman, specialising in womanhood, her sphere is the home. +Soft, trailing, draping skirts, slow movements, a veiled face; for no +Oriental veil could be more effectual than her beautiful Catholic +quiet. Catholicism invented the invisible purdah. She is far more akin +to that sweet little Indian lady with the wonderful robes whom Carmine +brought over with her tall husband last summer, than she is to Letty or +Cissie. She, too, undertook to play hockey. And played it very much as +Madame Van der Pant played it.... + +"The more I see of our hockey," said Mr. Britling, "the more wonderful +it seems to me as a touchstone of character and culture and +breeding...." + +Mr. Manning, to whom he was delivering this discourse, switched him on +to a new track by asking what he meant by "Neo-European." + +"It's a bad phrase," said Mr. Britling. "I'll withdraw it. Let me try +and state exactly what I have in mind. I mean something that is coming +up in America and here and the Scandinavian countries and Russia, a new +culture, an escape from the Levantine religion and the Catholic culture +that came to us from the Mediterranean. Let me drop Neo-European; let me +say Northern. We are Northerners. The key, the heart, the nucleus and +essence of every culture is its conception of the relations of men and +women; and this new culture tends to diminish the specialisation of +women as women, to let them out from the cell of the home into common +citizenship with men. It's a new culture, still in process of +development, which will make men more social and co-operative and women +bolder, swifter, more responsible and less cloistered. It minimises +instead of exaggerating the importance of sex.... + +"And," said Mr. Britling, in very much the tones in which a preacher +might say "Sixthly," "it is just all this Northern tendency that this +world struggle is going to release. This war is pounding through Europe, +smashing up homes, dispersing and mixing homes, setting Madame Van der +Pant playing hockey, and Andre climbing trees with my young ruffians; it +is killing young men by the million, altering the proportions of the +sexes for a generation, bringing women into business and office and +industry, destroying the accumulated wealth that kept so many of them in +refined idleness, flooding the world with strange doubts and novel +ideas...." + + +Section 9 + +But the conflict of manners and customs that followed the invasion of +the English villages by French and Belgian refugees did not always +present the immigrants as Catholics and the hosts as "Neo-European." In +the case of Mr. Dimple it was the other way round. He met Mr. Britling +in Claverings park and told him his troubles.... + +"Of course," he said, "we have to do our Utmost for Brave Little +Belgium. I would be the last to complain of any little inconvenience one +may experience in doing that. Still, I must confess I think you and dear +Mrs. Britling are fortunate, exceptionally fortunate, in the Belgians +you have got. My guests--it's unfortunate--the man is some sort of +journalist and quite--oh! much too much--an Atheist. An open positive +one. Not simply Honest Doubt. I'm quite prepared for honest doubt +nowadays. You and I have no quarrel over that. But he is aggressive. He +makes remarks about miracles, quite derogatory remarks, and not always +in French. Sometimes he almost speaks English. And in front of my +sister. And he goes out, he says, looking for a Cafe. He never finds a +Cafe, but he certainly finds every public house within a radius of +miles. And he comes back smelling dreadfully of beer. When I drop a +Little Hint, he blames the beer. He says it is not good beer--our good +Essex beer! He doesn't understand any of our simple ways. He's +sophisticated. The girls about here wear Belgian flags--and air their +little bits of French. And he takes it as an encouragement. Only +yesterday there was a scene. It seems he tried to kiss the Hickson girl +at the inn--Maudie.... And his wife; a great big slow woman--in every +way she is--Ample; it's dreadful even to seem to criticise, but I do so +_wish_ she would not see fit to sit down and nourish her baby in my poor +old bachelor drawing-room--often at the most _unseasonable_ times. +And--so lavishly...." + +Mr. Britling attempted consolations. + +"But anyhow," said Mr. Dimple, "I'm better off than poor dear Mrs. +Bynne. She secured two milliners. She insisted upon them. And their +clothes were certainly beautifully made--even my poor old unworldly eye +could tell that. And she thought two milliners would be so useful with a +large family like hers. They certainly _said_ they were milliners. But +it seems--I don't know what we shall do about them.... My dear Mr. +Britling, those young women are anything but milliners--anything but +milliners...." + +A faint gleam of amusement was only too perceptible through the good +man's horror. + +"Sirens, my dear Mr. Britling. Sirens. By profession."... + + +Section 10 + +October passed into November, and day by day Mr. Britling was forced to +apprehend new aspects of the war, to think and rethink the war, to have +his first conclusions checked and tested, twisted askew, replaced. His +thoughts went far and wide and deeper--until all his earlier writing +seemed painfully shallow to him, seemed a mere automatic response of +obvious comments to the stimulus of the war's surprise. As his ideas +became subtler and profounder, they became more difficult to express; he +talked less; he became abstracted and irritable at table. To two people +in particular Mr. Britling found his real ideas inexpressible, to Mr. +Direck and to Mr. Van der Pant. + +Each of these gentlemen brought with him the implication or the +intimation of a critical attitude towards England. It was all very well +for Mr. Britling himself to be critical of England; that is an +Englishman's privilege. To hear Mr. Van der Pant questioning British +efficiency or to suspect Mr. Direck of high, thin American superiorities +to war, was almost worse than to hear Mrs. Harrowdean saying hostile +things about Edith. It roused an even acuter protective emotion. + +In the case of Mr. Van der Pant matters were complicated by the +difficulty of the language, which made anything but the crudest +statements subject to incalculable misconception. + +Mr. Van der Pant had not the extreme tactfulness of his so typically +Catholic wife; he made it only too plain that he thought the British +postal and telegraph service slow and slack, and the management of the +Great Eastern branch lines wasteful and inefficient. He said the workmen +in the fields and the workmen he saw upon some cottages near the +junction worked slowlier and with less interest than he had ever seen +any workman display in all his life before. He marvelled that Mr. +Britling lit his house with acetylene and not electric light. He thought +fresh eggs were insanely dear, and his opinion of Matching's Easy +pig-keeping was uncomplimentary. The roads, he said, were not a means of +getting from place to place, they were a _dedale_; he drew derisive maps +with his finger on the table-cloth of the lane system about the Dower +House. He was astonished that there was no Cafe in Matching's Easy; he +declared that the "public house" to which he went with considerable +expectation was no public house at all; it was just a sly place for +drinking beer.... All these were things Mr. Britling might have remarked +himself; from a Belgian refugee he found them intolerable. + +He set himself to explain to Mr. Van der Pant firstly that these things +did not matter in the slightest degree, the national attention, the +national interest ran in other directions; and secondly that they were, +as a matter of fact and on the whole, merits slightly disguised. He +produced a pleasant theory that England is really not the Englishman's +field, it is his breeding place, his resting place, a place not for +efficiency but good humour. If Mr. Van der Pant were to make inquiries +he would find there was scarcely a home in Matching's Easy that had not +sent some energetic representative out of England to become one of the +English of the world. England was the last place in which English energy +was spent. These hedges, these dilatory roads were full of associations. +There was a road that turned aside near Market Saffron to avoid Turk's +wood; it had been called Turk's wood first in the fourteenth century +after a man of that name. He quoted Chesterton's happy verses to justify +these winding lanes. + + "The road turned first towards the left, + Where Perkin's quarry made the cleft; + The path turned next towards the right, + Because the mastiff used to bite...." + +And again: + + "And I should say they wound about + To find the town of Roundabout, + The merry town of Roundabout + That makes the world go round." + +If our easy-going ways hampered a hard efficiency, they did at least +develop humour and humanity. Our diplomacy at any rate had not failed +us.... + +He did not believe a word of this stuff. His deep irrational love for +England made him say these things.... For years he had been getting +himself into hot water because he had been writing and hinting just such +criticisms as Mr. Van der Pant expressed so bluntly.... But he wasn't +going to accept foreign help in dissecting his mother.... + +And another curious effect that Mr. Van der Pant had upon Mr. Britling +was to produce an obstinate confidence about the war and the nearness +of the German collapse. He would promise Mr. Van der Pant that he should +be back in Antwerp before May; that the Germans would be over the Rhine +by July. He knew perfectly well that his ignorance of all the military +conditions was unqualified, but still he could not restrain himself from +this kind of thing so soon as he began to speak Entente +Cordiale--Anglo-French, that is to say. Something in his relationship to +Mr. Van der Pant obliged him to be acutely and absurdly the protecting +British.... At times he felt like a conscious bankrupt talking off the +hour of disclosure. But indeed all that Mr. Britling was trying to say +against the difficulties of a strange language and an alien temperament, +was that the honour of England would never be cleared until Belgium was +restored and avenged.... + +While Mr. Britling was patrolling unimportant roads and entertaining Mr. +Van der Pant with discourses upon the nearness of victory and the subtle +estimableness of all that was indolent, wasteful and evasive in English +life, the war was passing from its first swift phases into a slower, +grimmer struggle. The German retreat ended at the Aisne, and the long +outflanking manoeuvres of both hosts towards the Channel began. The +English attempts to assist Belgium in October came too late for the +preservation of Antwerp, and after a long and complicated struggle in +Flanders the British failed to outflank the German right, lost Ghent, +Menin and the Belgian coast, but held Ypres and beat back every attempt +of the enemy to reach Dunkirk and Calais. Meanwhile the smaller German +colonies and islands were falling to the navy, the Australian battleship +_Sydney_ smashed the _Emden_ at Cocos Island, and the British naval +disaster of Coronel was wiped out by the battle of the Falklands. The +Russians were victorious upon their left and took Lemberg, and after +some vicissitudes of fortune advanced to Przemysl, occupying the larger +part of Galicia; but the disaster of Tannenberg had broken their +progress in East Prussia, and the Germans were pressing towards Warsaw. +Turkey had joined the war, and suffered enormous losses in the Caucasus. +The Dardanelles had been shelled for the first time, and the British +were at Basra on the Euphrates. + + +Section 11 + +The Christmas of 1914 found England, whose landscape had hitherto been +almost as peaceful and soldierless as Massachusetts, already far gone +along the path of transformation into a country full of soldiers and +munition makers and military supplies. The soldiers came first, on the +well-known and greatly admired British principle of "first catch your +hare" and then build your kitchen. Always before, Christmas had been a +time of much gaiety and dressing up and prancing and two-stepping at the +Dower House, but this year everything was too uncertain to allow of any +gathering of guests. Hugh got leave for the day after Christmas, but +Teddy was tied; and Cissie and Letty went off with the small boy to take +lodgings near him. The Van der Pants had hoped to see an English +Christmas at Matching's Easy, but within three weeks of Christmas Day +Mr. Van der Pant found a job that he could do in Nottingham, and carried +off his family. The two small boys cheered their hearts with paper +decorations, but the Christmas Tree was condemned as too German, and it +was discovered that Santa Claus had suddenly become Old Father Christmas +again. The small boys discovered that the price of lead soldiers had +risen, and were unable to buy electric torches, on which they had set +their hearts. There was to have been a Christmas party at Claverings, +but at the last moment Lady Homartyn had to hurry off to an orphan +nephew who had been seriously wounded near Ypres, and the light of +Claverings was darkened. + +Soon after Christmas there were rumours of an impending descent of the +Headquarters staff of the South-Eastern army upon Claverings. Then Mr. +Britling found Lady Homartyn back from France, and very indignant +because after all the Headquarters were to go to Lady Wensleydale at +Ladyholt. It was, she felt, a reflection upon Claverings. Lady Homartyn +became still more indignant when presently the new armies, which were +gathering now all over England like floods in a low-lying meadow, came +pouring into the parishes about Claverings to the extent of a battalion +and a Territorial battery. Mr. Britling heard of their advent only a day +or two before they arrived; there came a bright young officer with an +orderly, billeting; he was much exercised to get, as he expressed it +several times, a quart into a pint bottle. He was greatly pleased with +the barn. He asked the size of it and did calculations. He could "stick +twenty-five men into it--easy." It would go far to solve his problems. +He could manage without coming into the house at all. It was a ripping +place. "No end." + +"But beds," said Mr. Britling. + +"Lord! they don't want _beds_," said the young officer.... + +The whole Britling family, who were lamenting the loss of their +Belgians, welcomed the coming of the twenty-five with great enthusiasm. +It made them feel that they were doing something useful once more. For +three days Mrs. Britling had to feed her new lodgers--the kitchen motors +had as usual gone astray--and she did so in a style that made their +boastings about their billet almost insufferable to the rest of their +battery. The billeting allowance at that time was ninepence a head, and +Mr. Britling, ashamed of making a profit out of his country, supplied +not only generous firing and lighting, but unlimited cigarettes, cards +and games, illustrated newspapers, a cocoa supper with such little +surprises as sprats and jam roly-poly, and a number of more incidental +comforts. The men arrived fasting under the command of two very sage +middle-aged corporals, and responded to Mrs. Britling's hospitalities by +a number of good resolutions, many of which they kept. They never made +noises after half-past ten, or at least only now and then when a +singsong broke out with unusual violence; they got up and went out at +five or six in the morning without a sound; they were almost +inconveniently helpful with washing-up and tidying round. + +In quite a little time Mrs. Britling's mind had adapted itself to the +spectacle of half-a-dozen young men in khaki breeches and shirts +performing their toilets in and about her scullery, or improvising an +unsanctioned game of football between the hockey goals. These men were +not the miscellaneous men of the new armies; they were the earlier +Territorial type with no heroics about them; they came from the +midlands; and their two middle-aged corporals kept them well in hand and +ruled them like a band of brothers. But they had an illegal side, that +developed in directions that set Mr. Britling theorising. They seemed, +for example, to poach by nature, as children play and sing. They +possessed a promiscuous white dog. They began to add rabbits to their +supper menu, unaccountable rabbits. One night there was a mighty smell +of frying fish from the kitchen, and the cook reported trout. "Trout!" +said Mr. Britling to one of the corporals; "now where did you chaps get +trout?" + +The "fisherman," they said, had got them with a hair noose. They +produced the fisherman, of whom they were manifestly proud. It was, he +explained, a method of fishing he had learnt when in New York Harbour. +He had been a stoker. He displayed a confidence in Mr. Britling that +made that gentleman an accessory after his offence, his very serious +offence against pre-war laws and customs. It was plain that the trout +were the trout that Mr. Pumshock, the stock-broker and amateur +gentleman, had preserved so carefully in the Easy. Hitherto the +countryside had been forced to regard Mr. Pumshock's trout with an +almost superstitious respect. A year ago young Snooker had done a month +for one of those very trout. But now things were different. + +"But I don't really fancy fresh-water fish," said the fisherman. "It's +just the ketchin' of 'em I like...." + +And a few weeks later the trumpeter, an angel-faced freckled child with +deep-blue eyes, brought in a dozen partridge eggs which he wanted Mary +to cook for him.... + +The domesticity of the sacred birds, it was clear, was no longer safe in +England.... + +Then again the big guns would go swinging down the road and into +Claverings park, and perform various exercises with commendable +smartness and a profound disregard for Lady Homartyn's known objection +to any departure from the public footpath.... + +And one afternoon as Mr. Britling took his constitutional walk, a +reverie was set going in his mind by the sight of a neglected-looking +pheasant with a white collar. The world of Matching's Easy was getting +full now of such elderly birds. Would _that_ go on again after the war? +He imagined his son Hugh as a grandfather, telling the little ones about +parks and preserves and game laws, and footmen and butlers and the +marvellous game of golf, and how, suddenly, Mars came tramping through +the land in khaki and all these things faded and vanished, so that +presently it was discovered they were gone.... + + + + +CHAPTER THE THIRD + +MALIGNITY + + +Section 1 + +And while the countryside of England changed steadily from its lax +pacific amenity to the likeness of a rather slovenly armed camp, while +long-fixed boundaries shifted and dissolved and a great irreparable +wasting of the world's resources gathered way, Mr. Britling did his duty +as a special constable, gave his eldest son to the Territorials, +entertained Belgians, petted his soldiers in the barn, helped Teddy to +his commission, contributed to war charities, sold out securities at a +loss and subscribed to the War Loan, and thought, thought endlessly +about the war. + +He could think continuously day by day of nothing else. His mind was as +caught as a galley slave, as unable to escape from tugging at this oar. +All his universe was a magnetic field which oriented everything, whether +he would have it so or not, to this one polar question. + +His thoughts grew firmer and clearer; they went deeper and wider. His +first superficial judgments were endorsed and deepened or replaced by +others. He thought along the lonely lanes at night; he thought at his +desk; he thought in bed; he thought in his bath; he tried over his +thoughts in essays and leading articles and reviewed them and corrected +them. Now and then came relaxation and lassitude, but never release. The +war towered over him like a vigilant teacher, day after day, week after +week, regardless of fatigue and impatience, holding a rod in its hand. + + +Section 2 + +Certain things had to be forced upon Mr. Britling because they jarred so +greatly with his habits of mind that he would never have accepted them +if he could have avoided doing so. + +Notably he would not recognise at first the extreme bitterness of this +war. He would not believe that the attack upon Britain and Western +Europe generally expressed the concentrated emotion of a whole nation. +He thought that the Allies were in conflict with a system and not with a +national will. He fought against the persuasion that the whole mass of a +great civilised nation could be inspired by a genuine and sustained +hatred. Hostility was an uncongenial thing to him; he would not +recognise that the greater proportion of human beings are more readily +hostile than friendly. He did his best to believe--in his "And Now War +Ends" he did his best to make other people believe--that this war was +the perverse exploit of a small group of people, of limited but powerful +influences, an outrage upon the general geniality of mankind. The +cruelty, mischief, and futility of war were so obvious to him that he +was almost apologetic in asserting them. He believed that war had but to +begin and demonstrate its quality among the Western nations in order to +unify them all against its repetition. They would exclaim: "But we can't +do things like this to one another!" He saw the aggressive imperialism +of Germany called to account even by its own people; a struggle, a +collapse, a liberal-minded conference of world powers, and a universal +resumption of amiability upon a more assured basis of security. He +believed--and many people in England believed with him--that a great +section of the Germans would welcome triumphant Allies as their +liberators from intolerable political obsessions. + +The English because of their insularity had been political amateurs for +endless generations. It was their supreme vice, it was their supreme +virtue, to be easy-going. They had lived in an atmosphere of comedy, and +denied in the whole tenor of their lives that life is tragic. Not even +the Americans had been more isolated. The Americans had had their +Indians, their negroes, their War of Secession. Until the Great War the +Channel was as broad as the Atlantic for holding off every vital +challenge. Even Ireland was away--a four-hour crossing. And so the +English had developed to the fullest extent the virtues and vices of +safety and comfort; they had a hatred of science and dramatic behaviour; +they could see no reason for exactness or intensity; they disliked +proceeding "to extremes." Ultimately everything would turn out all +right. But they knew what it is to be carried into conflicts by +energetic minorities and the trick of circumstances, and they were ready +to understand the case of any other country which has suffered that +fate. All their habits inclined them to fight good-temperedly and +comfortably, to quarrel with a government and not with a people. It took +Mr. Britling at least a couple of months of warfare to understand that +the Germans were fighting in an altogether different spirit. + +The first intimations of this that struck upon his mind were the news of +the behaviour of the Kaiser and the Berlin crowd upon the declaration of +war, and the violent treatment of the British subjects seeking to return +to their homes. Everywhere such people had been insulted and +ill-treated. It was the spontaneous expression of a long-gathered +bitterness. While the British ambassador was being howled out of Berlin, +the German ambassador to England was taking a farewell stroll, quite +unmolested, in St. James's Park.... One item that struck particularly +upon Mr. Britling's imagination was the story of the chorus of young +women who assembled on the railway platform of the station through which +the British ambassador was passing to sing--to his drawn +blinds--"Deutschland, Deutschland ueber Alles." Mr. Britling could +imagine those young people, probably dressed more or less uniformly in +white, with flushed faces and shining eyes, letting their voices go, +full throated, in the modern German way.... + +And then came stories of atrocities, stories of the shooting of old men +and the butchery of children by the wayside, stories of wounded men +bayoneted or burnt alive, of massacres of harmless citizens, of looting +and filthy outrages.... + +Mr. Britling did his utmost not to believe these things. They +contradicted his habitual world. They produced horrible strains in his +mind. They might, he hoped, be misreported so as to seem more violent or +less justifiable than they were. They might be the acts of stray +criminals, and quite disconnected from the normal operations of the war. +Here and there some weak-minded officer may have sought to make himself +terrible.... And as for the bombardment of cathedrals and the crime of +Louvain, well, Mr. Britling was prepared to argue that Gothic +architecture is not sacrosanct if military necessity cuts through it.... +It was only after the war had been going on some months that Mr. +Britling's fluttering, unwilling mind was pinned down by official +reports and a cloud of witnesses to a definite belief in the grim +reality of systematic rape and murder, destruction, dirtiness and +abominable compulsions that blackened the first rush of the Prussians +into Belgium and Champagne.... + +They came hating and threatening the lands they outraged. They sought +occasion to do frightful deeds.... When they could not be frightful in +the houses they occupied, then to the best of their ability they were +destructive and filthy. The facts took Mr. Britling by the throat.... + +The first thing that really pierced Mr. Britling with the conviction +that there was something essentially different in the English and the +German attitude towards the war was the sight of a bale of German comic +papers in the study of a friend in London. They were filled with +caricatures of the Allies and more particularly of the English, and they +displayed a force and quality of passion--an incredible force and +quality of passion. Their amazing hate and their amazing filthiness +alike overwhelmed Mr. Britling. There was no appearance of national +pride or national dignity, but a bellowing patriotism and a limitless +desire to hurt and humiliate. They spat. They were red in the face and +they spat. He sat with these violent sheets in his hands--_ashamed_. + +"But I say!" he said feebly. "It's the sort of thing that might come out +of a lunatic asylum...." + +One incredible craving was manifest in every one of them. The German +caricaturist seemed unable to represent his enemies except in extremely +tight trousers or in none; he was equally unable to represent them +without thrusting a sword or bayonet, spluttering blood, into the more +indelicate parts of their persons. This was the _leit-motif_ of the war +as the German humorists presented it. "But," said Mr. Britling, "these +things can't represent anything like the general state of mind in +Germany." + +"They do," said his friend. + +"But it's blind fury--at the dirt-throwing stage." + +"The whole of Germany is in that blind fury," said his friend. "While we +are going about astonished and rather incredulous about this war, and +still rather inclined to laugh, that's the state of mind of Germany.... +There's a sort of deliberation in it. They think it gives them strength. +They _want_ to foam at the mouth. They do their utmost to foam more. +They write themselves up. Have you heard of the 'Hymn of Hate'?" + +Mr. Britling had not. + +"There was a translation of it in last week's _Spectator_.... This is +the sort of thing we are trying to fight in good temper and without +extravagance. Listen, Britling! + + "_You_ will we hate with a lasting hate; + We will never forgo our hate-- + Hate by water and hate by land, + Hate of the head and hate of the hand, + Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown, + Hate of seventy millions, choking down; + We love as one, we hate as one, + We have _one_ foe, and one alone-- + ENGLAND!" + +He read on to the end. + +"Well," he said when he had finished reading, "what do you think of it?" + +"I want to feel his bumps," said Mr. Britling after a pause. "It's +incomprehensible." + +"They're singing that up and down Germany. Lissauer, I hear, has been +decorated...." + +"It's--stark malignity," said Mr. Britling. "What have we done?" + +"It's colossal. What is to happen to the world if these people prevail?" + +"I can't believe it--even with this evidence before me.... No! I want to +feel their bumps...." + + +Section 3 + +"You see," said Mr. Britling, trying to get it into focus, "I have known +quite decent Germans. There must be some sort of misunderstanding.... I +wonder what makes them hate us. There seems to me no reason in it." + +"I think it is just thoroughness," said his friend. "They are at war. To +be at war is to hate." + +"That isn't at all my idea." + +"We're not a thorough people. When we think of anything, we also think +of its opposite. When we adopt an opinion we also take in a provisional +idea that it is probably nearly as wrong as it is right. We +are--atmospheric. They are concrete.... All this filthy, vile, unjust +and cruel stuff is honest genuine war. We pretend war does not hurt. +They know better.... The Germans are a simple honest people. It is +their virtue. Possibly it is their only virtue...." + + +Section 4 + +Mr. Britling was only one of a multitude who wanted to feel the bumps of +Germany at that time. The effort to understand a people who had suddenly +become incredible was indeed one of the most remarkable facts in English +intellectual life during the opening phases of the war. The English +state of mind was unlimited astonishment. There was an enormous sale of +any German books that seemed likely to illuminate the mystery of this +amazing concentration of hostility; the works of Bernhardi, Treitschke, +Nietzsche, Houston Stewart Chamberlain, became the material of countless +articles and interminable discussions. One saw little clerks on the way +to the office and workmen going home after their work earnestly reading +these remarkable writers. They were asking, just as Mr. Britling was +asking, what it was the British Empire had struck against. They were +trying to account for this wild storm of hostility that was coming at +them out of Central Europe. + +It was a natural next stage to this, when after all it became manifest +that instead of there being a liberal and reluctant Germany at the back +of imperialism and Junkerdom, there was apparently one solid and +enthusiastic people, to suppose that the Germans were in some +distinctive way evil, that they were racially more envious, arrogant, +and aggressive than the rest of mankind. Upon that supposition a great +number of English people settled. They concluded that the Germans had a +peculiar devil of their own--and had to be treated accordingly. That was +the second stage in the process of national apprehension, and it was +marked by the first beginnings of a spy hunt, by the first denunciation +of naturalised aliens, and by some anti-German rioting among the mixed +alien population in the East End. Most of the bakers in the East End of +London were Germans, and for some months after the war began they went +on with their trade unmolested. Now many of these shops were wrecked.... +It was only in October that the British gave these first signs of a +sense that they were fighting not merely political Germany but the +Germans. + +But the idea of a peculiar malignity in the German quality as a key to +the broad issue of the war was even less satisfactory and less permanent +in Mr. Britling's mind than his first crude opposition of militarism and +a peaceful humanity as embodied respectively in the Central Powers and +the Russo-Western alliance. It led logically to the conclusion that the +extermination of the German peoples was the only security for the +general amiability of the world, a conclusion that appealed but weakly +to his essential kindliness. After all, the Germans he had met and seen +were neither cruel nor hate-inspired. He came back to that obstinately. +From the harshness and vileness of the printed word and the unclean +picture, he fell back upon the flesh and blood, the humanity and +sterling worth, of--as a sample--young Heinrich. + +Who was moreover a thoroughly German young German--a thoroughly Prussian +young Prussian. + +At times young Heinrich alone stood between Mr. Britling and the belief +that Germany and the whole German race was essentially wicked, +essentially a canting robber nation. Young Heinrich became a sort of +advocate for his people before the tribunal of Mr. Britling's mind. (And +on his shoulder sat an absurdly pampered squirrel.) s fresh, pink, +sedulous face, very earnest, adjusting his glasses, saying "Please," +intervened and insisted upon an arrest of judgment.... + +Since the young man's departure he had sent two postcards of greeting +directly to the "Familie Britling," and one letter through the friendly +intervention of Mr. Britling's American publisher. Once also he sent a +message through a friend in Norway. The postcards simply recorded +stages in the passage of a distraught pacifist across Holland to his +enrolment. The letter by way of America came two months later. He had +been converted into a combatant with extreme rapidity. He had been +trained for three weeks, had spent a fortnight in hospital with a severe +cold, and had then gone to Belgium as a transport driver--his father had +been a horse-dealer and he was familiar with horses. "If anything +happens to me," he wrote, "please send my violin at least very carefully +to my mother." It was characteristic that he reported himself as very +comfortably quartered in Courtrai with "very nice people." The niceness +involved restraints. "Only never," he added, "do we talk about the war. +It is better not to do so." He mentioned the violin also in the later +communication through Norway. Therein he lamented the lost fleshpots of +Courtrai. He had been in Posen, and now he was in the Carpathians, up to +his knees in snow and "very uncomfortable...." + +And then abruptly all news from him ceased. + +Month followed month, and no further letter came. + +"Something has happened to him. Perhaps he is a prisoner...." + +"I hope our little Heinrich hasn't got seriously damaged.... He may be +wounded...." + +"Or perhaps they stop his letters.... Very probably they stop his +letters." + + +Section 5 + +Mr. Britling would sit in his armchair and stare at his fire, and recall +conflicting memories of Germany--of a pleasant land, of friendly people. +He had spent many a jolly holiday there. So recently as 1911 all the +Britling family had gone up the Rhine from Rotterdam, had visited a +string of great cities and stayed for a cheerful month of sunshine at +Neunkirchen in the Odenwald. + +The little village perches high among the hills and woods, and at its +very centre is the inn and the linden tree and--Adam Meyer. Or at least +Adam Meyer _was_ there. Whether he is there now, only the spirit of +change can tell; if he live to be a hundred no friendly English will +ever again come tramping along by the track of the Blaue Breiecke or the +Weisse Streiche to enjoy his hospitality; there are rivers of blood +between, and a thousand memories of hate.... + +It was a village distended with hospitalities. Not only the inn but all +the houses about the place of the linden tree, the shoe-maker's, the +post-mistress's, the white house beyond, every house indeed except the +pastor's house, were full of Adam Meyer's summer guests. And about it +and over it went and soared Adam Meyer, seeing they ate well, seeing +they rested well, seeing they had music and did not miss the +moonlight--a host who forgot profit in hospitality, an inn-keeper with +the passion of an artist for his inn. + +Music, moonlight, the simple German sentiment, the hearty German voices, +the great picnic in a Stuhl Wagen, the orderly round games the boys +played with the German children, and the tramps and confidences Hugh had +with Kurt and Karl, and at last a crowning jollification, a dance, with +some gipsy musicians whom Mr. Britling discovered, when the Germans +taught the English various entertaining sports with baskets and potatoes +and forfeits and the English introduced the Germans to the licence of +the two-step. And everybody sang "Britannia, Rule the Waves," and +"Deutschland, Deutschland ueber Alles," and Adam Meyer got on a chair and +made a tremendous speech more in dialect than ever, and there was much +drinking of beer and sirops in the moonlight under the linden.... + +Afterwards there had been a periodic sending of postcards and greetings, +which indeed only the war had ended. + +Right pleasant people those Germans had been, sun and green-leaf lovers, +for whom "Frisch Auf" seemed the most natural of national cries. Mr. +Britling thought of the individual Germans who had made up the +assembly, of the men's amusingly fierce little hats of green and blue +with an inevitable feather thrust perkily into the hatband behind, of +the kindly plumpnesses behind their turned-up moustaches, of the blonde, +sedentary women, very wise about the comforts of life and very kind to +the children, of their earnest pleasure in landscape and Art and Great +Writers, of their general frequent desire to sing, of their plasticity +under the directing hands of Adam Meyer. He thought of the mellow south +German landscape, rolling away broad and fair, of the little clean +red-roofed townships, the old castles, the big prosperous farms, the +neatly marked pedestrian routes, the hospitable inns, and the artless +abundant Aussichtthurms.... + +He saw all those memories now through a veil of indescribable +sadness--as of a world lost, gone down like the cities of Lyonesse +beneath deep seas.... + +Right pleasant people in a sunny land! Yet here pressing relentlessly +upon his mind were the murders of Vise, the massacres of Dinant, the +massacres of Louvain, murder red-handed and horrible upon an inoffensive +people, foully invaded, foully treated; murder done with a sickening +cant of righteousness and racial pretension.... + +The two pictures would not stay steadily in his mind together. When he +thought of the broken faith that had poured those slaughtering hosts +into the decent peace of Belgium, that had smashed her cities, burnt her +villages and filled the pretty gorges of the Ardennes with blood and +smoke and terror, he was flooded with self-righteous indignation, a +self-righteous indignation that was indeed entirely Teutonic in its +quality, that for a time drowned out his former friendship and every +kindly disposition towards Germany, that inspired him with destructive +impulses, and obsessed him with a desire to hear of death and more death +and yet death in every German town and home.... + + +Section 6 + +It will be an incredible thing to the happier reader of a coming age--if +ever this poor record of experience reaches a reader in the days to +come--to learn how much of the mental life of Mr. Britling was occupied +at this time with the mere horror and atrocity of warfare. It is idle +and hopeless to speculate now how that future reader will envisage this +war; it may take on broad dramatic outlines, it may seem a thing, just, +logical, necessary, the burning of many barriers, the destruction of +many obstacles. Mr. Britling was too near to the dirt and pain and heat +for any such broad landscape consolations. Every day some new detail of +evil beat into his mind. Now it would be the artless story of some +Belgian refugee. There was a girl from Alost in the village for example, +who had heard the fusillade that meant the shooting of citizens, the +shooting of people she had known, she had seen the still blood-stained +wall against which two murdered cousins had died, the streaked sand +along which their bodies had been dragged; three German soldiers had +been quartered in her house with her and her invalid mother, and had +talked freely of the massacres in which they had been employed. One of +them was in civil life a young schoolmaster, and he had had, he said, to +kill a woman and a baby. The girl had been incredulous. Yes, he had done +so! Of course he had done so! His officer had made him do it, had stood +over him. He could do nothing but obey. But since then he had been +unable to sleep, unable to forget. + +"We had to punish the people," he said. "They had fired on us." + +And besides, his officer had been drunk. It had been impossible to +argue. His officer had an unrelenting character at all times.... + +Over and over again Mr. Britling would try to imagine that young +schoolmaster soldier at Alost. He imagined with a weak staring face and +watery blue eyes behind his glasses, and that memory of murder.... + +Then again it would be some incident of death and mutilation in Antwerp, +that Van der Pant described to him. The Germans in Belgium were shooting +women frequently, not simply for grave spying but for trivial +offences.... Then came the battleship raid on Whitby and Scarborough, +and the killing among other victims of a number of children on their way +to school. This shocked Mr. Britling absurdly, much more than the +Belgian crimes had done. They were _English_ children. At home!... The +drowning of a great number of people on a torpedoed ship full of +refugees from Flanders filled his mind with pitiful imaginings for days. +The Zeppelin raids, with their slow crescendo of blood-stained futility, +began before the end of 1914.... It was small consolation for Mr. +Britling to reflect that English homes and women and children were, +after all, undergoing only the same kind of experience that our ships +have inflicted scores of times in the past upon innocent people in the +villages of Africa and Polynesia.... + +Each month the war grew bitterer and more cruel. Early in 1915 the +Germans began their submarine war, and for a time Mr. Britling's concern +was chiefly for the sailors and passengers of the ships destroyed. He +noted with horror the increasing indisposition of the German submarines +to give any notice to their victims; he did not understand the grim +reasons that were turning every submarine attack into a desperate +challenge of death. For the Germans under the seas had pitted themselves +against a sea power far more resourceful, more steadfast and skilful, +sterner and more silent, than their own. It was not for many months that +Mr. Britling learnt the realities of the submarine blockade. Submarine +after submarine went out of the German harbours into the North Sea, +never to return. No prisoners were reported, no boasting was published +by the British fishers of men; U boat after U boat vanished into a +chilling mystery.... Only later did Mr. Britling begin to hear whispers +and form ideas of the noiseless, suffocating grip that sought through +the waters for its prey. + +The _Falaba_ crime, in which the German sailors were reported to have +jeered at the drowning victims in the water, was followed by the sinking +of the _Lusitania_. At that a wave of real anger swept through the +Empire. Hate was begetting hate at last. There were violent riots in +Great Britain and in South Africa. Wretched little German hairdressers +and bakers and so forth fled for their lives, to pay for the momentary +satisfaction of the Kaiser and Herr Ballin. Scores of German homes in +England were wrecked and looted; hundreds of Germans maltreated. War is +war. Hard upon the _Lusitania_ storm came the publication of the Bryce +Report, with its relentless array of witnesses, its particulars of +countless acts of cruelty and arrogant unreason and uncleanness in +Belgium and the occupied territory of France. Came also the gasping +torture of "gas," the use of flame jets, and a new exacerbation of the +savagery of the actual fighting. For a time it seemed as though the +taking of prisoners along the western front would cease. Tales of +torture and mutilation, tales of the kind that arise nowhere and out of +nothing, and poison men's minds to the most pitiless retaliations, +drifted along the opposing fronts.... + +The realities were evil enough without any rumours. Over various +dinner-tables Mr. Britling heard this and that first-hand testimony of +harshness and spite. One story that stuck in his memory was of British +prisoners on the journey into Germany being put apart at a station from +their French companions in misfortune, and forced to "run the gauntlet" +back to their train between the fists and bayonets of files of German +soldiers. And there were convincing stories of the same prisoners robbed +of overcoats in bitter weather, baited with dogs, separated from their +countrymen, and thrust among Russians and Poles with whom they could +hold no speech. So Lissauer's Hate Song bore its fruit in a thousand +cruelties to wounded and defenceless men. The English had cheated great +Germany of another easy victory like that of '71. They had to be +punished. That was all too plainly the psychological process. At one +German station a woman had got out of a train and crossed a platform to +spit on the face of a wounded Englishman.... And there was no monopoly +of such things on either side. At some journalistic gathering Mr. +Britling met a little white-faced, resolute lady who had recently been +nursing in the north of France. She told of wounded men lying among the +coal of coal-sheds, of a shortage of nurses and every sort of material, +of an absolute refusal to permit any share in such things to reach the +German "swine." ... "Why have they come here? Let our own boys have it +first. Why couldn't they stay in their own country? Let the filth die." + +Two soldiers impressed to carry a wounded German officer on a stretcher +had given him a "joy ride," pitching him up and down as one tosses a man +in a blanket. "He was lucky to get off with that."... + +"All _our_ men aren't angels," said a cheerful young captain back from +the front. "If you had heard a little group of our East London boys +talking of what they meant to do when they got into Germany, you'd feel +anxious...." + +"But that was just talk," said Mr. Britling weakly, after a pause.... + +There were times when Mr. Britling's mind was imprisoned beyond any hope +of escape amidst such monstrous realities.... + +He was ashamed of his one secret consolation. For nearly two years yet +Hugh could not go out to it. There would surely be peace before +that.... + + +Section 7 + +Tormenting the thought of Mr. Britling almost more acutely than this +growing tale of stupidly inflicted suffering and waste and sheer +destruction was the collapse of the British mind from its first fine +phase of braced-up effort into a state of bickering futility. + +Too long had British life been corrupted by the fictions of loyalty to +an uninspiring and alien Court, of national piety in an official Church, +of freedom in a politician-rigged State, of justice in an economic +system where the advertiser, the sweater and usurer had a hundred +advantages over the producer and artisan, to maintain itself now +steadily at any high pitch of heroic endeavour. It had bought its +comfort with the demoralisation of its servants. It had no completely +honest organs; its spirit was clogged by its accumulated insincerities. +Brought at last face to face with a bitter hostility and a powerful and +unscrupulous enemy, an enemy socialistic, scientific and efficient to an +unexampled degree, it seemed indeed to be inspired for a time by an +unwonted energy and unanimity. Youth and the common people shone. The +sons of every class went out to fight and die, full of a splendid dream +of this war. Easy-going vanished from the foreground of the picture. But +only to creep back again as the first inspiration passed. Presently the +older men, the seasoned politicians, the owners and hucksters, the +charming women and the habitual consumers, began to recover from this +blaze of moral exaltation. Old habits of mind and procedure reasserted +themselves. The war which had begun so dramatically missed its climax; +there was neither heroic swift defeat nor heroic swift victory. There +was indecision; the most trying test of all for an undisciplined people. +There were great spaces of uneventful fatigue. Before the Battle of the +Yser had fully developed the dramatic quality had gone out of the war. +It had ceased to be either a tragedy or a triumph; for both sides it +became a monstrous strain and wasting. It had become a wearisome +thrusting against a pressure of evils.... + +Under that strain the dignity of England broke, and revealed a malignity +less focussed and intense than the German, but perhaps even more +distressing. No paternal government had organised the British spirit for +patriotic ends; it became now peevish and impatient, like some +ill-trained man who is sick, it directed itself no longer against the +enemy alone but fitfully against imagined traitors and shirkers; it +wasted its energies in a deepening and spreading net of internal +squabbles and accusations. Now it was the wily indolence of the Prime +Minister, now it was the German culture of the Lord Chancellor, now the +imaginative enterprise of the First Lord of the Admiralty that focussed +a vindictive campaign. There began a hunt for spies and of suspects of +German origin in every quarter except the highest; a denunciation now of +"traitors," now of people with imaginations, now of scientific men, now +of the personal friend of the Commander-in-Chief, now of this group and +then of that group.... Every day Mr. Britling read his three or four +newspapers with a deepening disappointment. + +When he turned from the newspaper to his post, he would find the +anonymous letter-writer had been busy.... + +Perhaps Mr. Britling had remarked that Germans were after all human +beings, or that if England had listened to Matthew Arnold in the +'eighties our officers by this time might have added efficiency to their +courage and good temper. Perhaps he had himself put a touch of irritant +acid into his comment. Back flared the hate. "Who are _you_, Sir? What +are _you_, Sir? What right have _you_, Sir? What claim have _you_, +Sir?"... + + +Section 8 + +"Life had a wrangling birth. On the head of every one of us rests the +ancestral curse of fifty million murders." + +So Mr. Britling's thoughts shaped themselves in words as he prowled one +night in March, chill and melancholy, across a rushy meadow under an +overcast sky. The death squeal of some little beast caught suddenly in a +distant copse had set loose this train of thought. "Life struggling +under a birth curse?" he thought. "How nearly I come back at times to +the Christian theology!... And then, Redemption by the shedding of +blood." + +"Life, like a rebellious child, struggling out of the control of the +hate which made it what it is." + +But that was Mr. Britling's idea of Gnosticism, not of orthodox +Christianity. He went off for a time into faded reminiscences of +theological reading. What had been the Gnostic idea? That the God of the +Old Testament was the Devil of the New? But that had been the idea of +the Manichaeans!... + +Mr. Britling, between the black hedges, came back presently from his +attempts to recall his youthful inquiries into man's ancient +speculations, to the enduring riddles that have outlasted a thousand +speculations. Has hate been necessary, and is it still necessary, and +will it always be necessary? Is all life a war forever? The rabbit is +nimble, lives keenly, is prevented from degenerating into a diseased +crawling eater of herbs by the incessant ferret. Without the ferret of +war, what would life become?... War is murder truly, but is not Peace +decay? + +It was during these prowling nights in the first winter of the war that +Mr. Britling planned a new writing that was to go whole abysses beneath +the facile superficiality of "And Now War Ends." It was to be called the +"Anatomy of Hate." It was to deal very faithfully with the function of +hate as a corrective to inefficiency. So long as men were slack, men +must be fierce. This conviction pressed upon him.... + +In spite of his detestation of war Mr. Britling found it impossible to +maintain that any sort of peace state was better than a state of war. If +wars produced destructions and cruelties, peace could produce indolence, +perversity, greedy accumulation and selfish indulgences. War is +discipline for evil, but peace may be relaxation from good. The poor man +may be as wretched in peace time as in war time. The gathering forces of +an evil peace, the malignity and waste of war, are but obverse and +reverse of the medal of ill-adjusted human relationships. Was there no +Greater Peace possible; not a mere recuperative pause in killing and +destruction, but a phase of noble and creative living, a phase of +building, of discovery, of beauty and research? He remembered, as one +remembers the dead, dreams he had once dreamt of the great cities, the +splendid freedoms, of a coming age, of marvellous enlargements of human +faculty, of a coming science that would be light and of art that could +be power.... + +But would that former peace have ever risen to that?... + +After all, had such visions ever been more than idle dreams? Had the war +done more than unmask reality?... + +He came to a gate and leant over it. + +The darkness drizzled about him; he turned up his collar and watched the +dim shapes of trees and hedges gather out of the night to meet the +dismal dawn. He was cold and hungry and weary. + +He may have drowsed; at least he had a vision, very real and plain, a +vision very different from any dream of Utopia. + +It seemed to him that suddenly a mine burst under a great ship at sea, +that men shouted and women sobbed and cowered, and flares played upon +the rain-pitted black waves; and then the picture changed and showed a +battle upon land, and searchlights were flickering through the rain and +shells flashed luridly, and men darkly seen in silhouette against red +flames ran with fixed bayonets and slipped and floundered over the mud, +and at last, shouting thinly through the wind, leapt down into the enemy +trenches.... + +And then he was alone again staring over a wet black field towards a dim +crest of shapeless trees. + + +Section 9 + +Abruptly and shockingly, this malignity of warfare, which had been so +far only a festering cluster of reports and stories and rumours and +suspicions, stretched out its arm into Essex and struck a barb of +grotesque cruelty into the very heart of Mr. Britling. Late one +afternoon came a telegram from Filmington-on-Sea, where Aunt Wilshire +had been recovering her temper in a boarding-house after a round of +visits in Yorkshire and the moorlands. And she had been "very seriously +injured" by an overnight German air raid. It was a raid that had not +been even mentioned in the morning's papers. She had asked to see him. + +It was, ran the compressed telegraphic phrase, "advisable to come at +once." + +Mrs. Britling helped him pack a bag, and came with him to the station in +order to drive the car back to the Dower House; for the gardener's boy +who had hitherto attended to these small duties had now gone off as an +unskilled labourer to some munition works at Chelmsford. Mr. Britling +sat in the slow train that carried him across country to the junction +for Filmington, and failed altogether to realise what had happened to +the old lady. He had an absurd feeling that it was characteristic of her +to intervene in affairs in this manner. She had always been so tough and +unbent an old lady that until he saw her he could not imagine her as +being really seriously and pitifully hurt.... + +But he found her in the hospital very much hurt indeed. She had been +smashed in some complicated manner that left the upper part of her body +intact, and lying slantingly upon pillows. Over the horror of bandaged +broken limbs and tormented flesh below sheets and a counterpane were +drawn. Morphia had been injected, he understood, to save her from pain, +but presently it might be necessary for her to suffer. She lay up in her +bed with an effect of being enthroned, very white and still, her strong +profile with its big nose and her straggling hair and a certain dignity +gave her the appearance of some very important, very old man, of an aged +pope for instance, rather than of an old woman. She had made no remark +after they had set her and dressed her and put her to bed except "send +for Hughie Britling, The Dower House, Matching's Easy. He is the best of +the bunch." She had repeated the address and this commendation firmly +over and over again, in large print as it were, even after they had +assured her that a telegram had been despatched. + +In the night, they said, she had talked of him. + +He was not sure at first that she knew of his presence. + +"Here I am, Aunt Wilshire," he said. + +She gave no sign. + +"Your nephew Hugh." + +"Mean and preposterous," she said very distinctly. + +But she was not thinking of Mr. Britling. She was talking of something +else. + +She was saying: "It should not have been known I was here. There are +spies everywhere. Everywhere. There is a spy now--or a lump very like a +spy. They pretend it is a hot-water bottle. Pretext.... Oh, yes! I +admit--absurd. But I have been pursued by spies. Endless spies. Endless, +endless spies. Their devices are almost incredible.... He has never +forgiven me.... + +"All this on account of a carpet. A palace carpet. Over which I had no +control. I spoke my mind. He knew I knew of it. I never concealed it. +So I was hunted. For years he had meditated revenge. Now he has it. But +at what a cost! And they call him Emperor. Emperor! + +"His arm is withered; his son--imbecile. He will die--without +dignity...." + +Her voice weakened, but it was evident she wanted to say something more. + +"I'm here," said Mr. Britling. "Your nephew Hughie." + +She listened. + +"Can you understand me?" he asked. + +She became suddenly an earnest, tender human being. "My dear!" she said, +and seemed to search for something in her mind and failed to find it. + +"You have always understood me," she tried. + +"You have always been a good boy to me, Hughie," she said, rather +vacantly, and added after some moments of still reflection, "_au fond_." + +After that she was silent for some minutes, and took no notice of his +whispers. + +Then she recollected what had been in her mind. She put out a hand that +sought for Mr. Britling's sleeve. + +"Hughie!" + +"I'm here, Auntie," said Mr. Britling. "I'm here." + +"Don't let him get at _your_ Hughie.... Too good for it, dear. Oh! +much--much too good.... People let these wars and excitements run away +with them.... They put too much into them.... They aren't--they aren't +worth it. Don't let him get at your Hughie." + +"No!" + +"You understand me, Hughie?" + +"Perfectly, Auntie." + +"Then don't forget it. Ever." + +She had said what she wanted to say. She had made her testament. She +closed her eyes. He was amazed to find this grotesque old creature had +suddenly become beautiful, in that silvery vein of beauty one sometimes +finds in very old men. She was exalted as great artists will sometimes +exalt the portraits of the aged. He was moved to kiss her forehead. + +There came a little tug at his sleeve. + +"I think that is enough," said the nurse, who had stood forgotten at his +elbow. + +"But I can come again?" + +"Perhaps." + +She indicated departure by a movement of her hand. + + +Section 10 + +The next day Aunt Wilshire was unconscious of her visitor. + +They had altered her position so that she lay now horizontally, staring +inflexibly at the ceiling and muttering queer old disconnected things. + +The Windsor Castle carpet story was still running through her mind, but +mixed up with it now were scraps of the current newspaper controversies +about the conduct of the war. And she was still thinking of the dynastic +aspects of the war. And of spies. She had something upon her mind about +the King's more German aunts. + +"As a precaution," she said, "as a precaution. Watch them all.... The +Princess Christian.... Laying foundation stones.... Cement.... Guns. Or +else why should they always be laying foundation stones?... Always.... +Why?... Hushed up.... + +"None of these things," she said, "in the newspapers. They ought to be." + +And then after an interval, very distinctly, "The Duke of Wellington. My +ancestor--in reality.... Publish and be damned." + +After that she lay still.... + +The doctors and nurses could hold out only very faint hopes to Mr. +Britling's inquiries; they said indeed it was astonishing that she was +still alive. + +And about seven o'clock that evening she died.... + + +Section 11 + +Mr. Britling, after he had looked at his dead cousin for the last time, +wandered for an hour or so about the silent little watering-place before +he returned to his hotel. There was no one to talk to and nothing else +to do but to think of her death. + +The night was cold and bleak, but full of stars. He had already mastered +the local topography, and he knew now exactly where all the bombs that +had been showered upon the place had fallen. Here was the corner of +blackened walls and roasted beams where three wounded horses had been +burnt alive in a barn, here the row of houses, some smashed, some almost +intact, where a mutilated child had screamed for two hours before she +could be rescued from the debris that had pinned her down, and taken to +the hospital. Everywhere by the dim light of the shaded street lamps he +could see the black holes and gaps of broken windows; sometimes +abundant, sometimes rare and exceptional, among otherwise uninjured +dwellings. Many of the victims he had visited in the little cottage +hospital where Aunt Wilshire had just died. She was the eleventh dead. +Altogether fifty-seven people had been killed or injured in this +brilliant German action. They were all civilians, and only twelve were +men. + +Two Zeppelins had come in from over the sea, and had been fired at by an +anti-aircraft gun coming on an automobile from Ipswich. The first +intimation the people of the town had had of the raid was the report of +this gun. Many had run out to see what was happening. It was doubtful if +any one had really seen the Zeppelins, though every one testified to the +sound of their engines. Then suddenly the bombs had come streaming +down. Only six had made hits upon houses or people; the rest had fallen +ruinously and very close together on the local golf links, and at least +half had not exploded at all and did not seem to have been released to +explode. + +A third at least of the injured people had been in bed when destruction +came upon them. + +The story was like a page from some fantastic romance of Jules Verne's; +the peace of the little old town, the people going to bed, the quiet +streets, the quiet starry sky, and then for ten minutes an uproar of +guns and shells, a clatter of breaking glass, and then a fire here, a +fire there, a child's voice pitched high by pain and terror, scared +people going to and fro with lanterns, and the sky empty again, the +raiders gone.... + +Five minutes before, Aunt Wilshire had been sitting in the +boarding-house drawing-room playing a great stern "Patience," the +Emperor Patience ("Napoleon, my dear!--not that Potsdam creature") that +took hours to do. Five minutes later she was a thing of elemental terror +and agony, bleeding wounds and shattered bones, plunging about in the +darkness amidst a heap of wreckage. And already the German airmen were +buzzing away to sea again, proud of themselves, pleased no doubt--like +boys who have thrown a stone through a window, beating their way back to +thanks and rewards, to iron crosses and the proud embraces of delighted +Fraus and Fraeuleins.... + +For the first time it seemed to Mr. Britling he really saw the immediate +horror of war, the dense cruel stupidity of the business, plain and +close. It was as if he had never perceived anything of the sort before, +as if he had been dealing with stories, pictures, shows and +representations that he knew to be shams. But that this dear, absurd old +creature, this thing of home, this being of familiar humours and +familiar irritations, should be torn to pieces, left in torment like a +smashed mouse over which an automobile has passed, brought the whole +business to a raw and quivering focus. Not a soul among all those who +had been rent and torn and tortured in this agony of millions, but was +to any one who understood and had been near to it, in some way lovable, +in some way laughable, in some way worthy of respect and care. Poor Aunt +Wilshire was but the sample thrust in his face of all this mangled +multitude, whose green-white lips had sweated in anguish, whose broken +bones had thrust raggedly through red dripping flesh.... The detested +features of the German Crown Prince jerked into the centre of Mr. +Britling's picture. The young man stood in his dapper uniform and +grinned under his long nose, carrying himself jauntily, proud of his +extreme importance to so many lives.... + +And for a while Mr. Britling could do nothing but rage. + +"Devils they are!" he cried to the stars. + +"Devils! Devilish fools rather. Cruel blockheads. Apes with all science +in their hands! My God! but _we will teach them a lesson yet!_..." + +That was the key of his mood for an hour of aimless wandering, wandering +that was only checked at last by a sentinel who turned him back towards +the town.... + +He wandered, muttering. He found great comfort in scheming vindictive +destruction for countless Germans. He dreamt of swift armoured +aeroplanes swooping down upon the flying airship, and sending it reeling +earthward, the men screaming. He imagined a shattered Zeppelin +staggering earthward in the fields behind the Dower House, and how he +would himself run out with a spade and smite the Germans down. "Quarter +indeed! Kamerad! Take _that_, you foul murderer!" + +In the dim light the sentinel saw the retreating figure of Mr. Britling +make an extravagant gesture, and wondered what it might mean. +Signalling? What ought an intelligent sentry to do? Let fly at him? +Arrest him?... Take no notice?... + +Mr. Britling was at that moment killing Count Zeppelin and beating out +his brains. Count Zeppelin was killed that night and the German Emperor +was assassinated; a score of lesser victims were offered up to the +_manes_ of Aunt Wilshire; there were memorable cruelties before the +wrath and bitterness of Mr. Britling was appeased. And then suddenly he +had had enough of these thoughts; they were thrust aside, they vanished +out of his mind. + + +Section 12 + +All the while that Mr. Britling had been indulging in these imaginative +slaughterings and spending the tears and hate that had gathered in his +heart, his reason had been sitting apart and above the storm, like the +sun waiting above thunder, like a wise nurse watching and patient above +the wild passions of a child. And all the time his reason had been +maintaining silently and firmly, without shouting, without speech, that +the men who had made this hour were indeed not devils, were no more +devils than Mr. Britling was a devil, but sinful men of like nature with +himself, hard, stupid, caught in the same web of circumstance. "Kill +them in your passion if you will," said reason, "but understand. This +thing was done neither by devils nor fools, but by a conspiracy of +foolish motives, by the weak acquiescences of the clever, by a crime +that was no man's crime but the natural necessary outcome of the +ineffectiveness, the blind motives and muddleheadedness of all mankind." + +So reason maintained her thesis, like a light above the head of Mr. +Britling at which he would not look, while he hewed airmen to quivering +rags with a spade that he had sharpened, and stifled German princes with +their own poison gas, given slowly and as painfully as possible. "And +what of the towns _our_ ships have bombarded?" asked reason unheeded. +"What of those Tasmanians _our_ people utterly swept away?" + +"What of French machine-guns in the Atlas?" reason pressed the case. "Of +Himalayan villages burning? Of the things we did in China? Especially +of the things we did in China...." + +Mr. Britling gave no heed to that. + +"The Germans in China were worse than we were," he threw out.... + +He was maddened by the thought of the Zeppelin making off, high and far +in the sky, a thing dwindling to nothing among the stars, and the +thought of those murderers escaping him. Time after time he stood still +and shook his fist at Booetes, slowly sweeping up the sky.... + +And at last, sick and wretched, he sat down on a seat upon the deserted +parade under the stars, close to the soughing of the invisible sea +below.... + +His mind drifted back once more to those ancient heresies of the +Gnostics and the Manichaeans which saw the God of the World as altogether +evil, which sought only to escape by the utmost abstinences and evasions +and perversions from the black wickedness of being. For a while his soul +sank down into the uncongenial darknesses of these creeds of despair. "I +who have loved life," he murmured, and could have believed for a time +that he wished he had never had a son.... + +Is the whole scheme of nature evil? Is life in its essence cruel? Is man +stretched quivering upon the table of the eternal vivisector for no +end--and without pity? + +These were thoughts that Mr. Britling had never faced before the war. +They came to him now, and they came only to be rejected by the inherent +quality of his mind. For weeks, consciously and subconsciously, his mind +had been grappling with this riddle. He had thought of it during his +lonely prowlings as a special constable; it had flung itself in +monstrous symbols across the dark canvas of his dreams. "Is there indeed +a devil of pure cruelty? Does any creature, even the very cruellest of +creatures, really apprehend the pain it causes, or inflict it for the +sake of the infliction?" He summoned a score of memories, a score of +imaginations, to bear their witness before the tribunal of his mind. He +forgot cold and loneliness in this speculation. He sat, trying all +Being, on this score, under the cold indifferent stars. + +He thought of certain instances of boyish cruelty that had horrified him +in his own boyhood, and it was clear to him that indeed it was not +cruelty, it was curiosity, dense textured, thick skinned, so that it +could not feel even the anguish of a blinded cat. Those boys who had +wrung his childish soul to nigh intolerable misery, had not indeed been +tormenting so much as observing torment, testing life as wantonly as one +breaks thin ice in the early days of winter. In very much cruelty the +real motive is surely no worse than that obtuse curiosity; a mere step +of understanding, a mere quickening of the nerves and mind, makes it +impossible. But that is not true of all or most cruelty. Most cruelty +has something else in it, something more than the clumsy plunging into +experience of the hobbledehoy; it is vindictive or indignant; it is +never tranquil and sensuous; it draws its incentive, however crippled +and monstrous the justification may be, from something punitive in man's +instinct, something therefore that implies a sense, however misguided, +of righteousness and vindication. That factor is present even in spite; +when some vile or atrocious thing is done out of envy or malice, that +envy and malice has in it always--_always?_ Yes, always--a genuine +condemnation of the hated thing as an unrighteous thing, as an unjust +usurpation, as an inexcusable privilege, as a sinful overconfidence. +Those men in the airship?--he was coming to that. He found himself +asking himself whether it was possible for a human being to do any cruel +act without an excuse--or, at least, without the feeling of +excusability. And in the case of these Germans and the outrages they had +committed and the retaliations they had provoked, he perceived that +always there was the element of a perceptible if inadequate +justification. Just as there would be if presently he were to maltreat a +fallen German airman. There was anger in their vileness. These Germans +were an unsubtle people, a people in the worst and best sense of the +words, plain and honest; they were prone to moral indignation; and moral +indignation is the mother of most of the cruelty in the world. They +perceived the indolence of the English and Russians, they perceived +their disregard of science and system, they could not perceive the +longer reach of these greater races, and it seemed to them that the +mission of Germany was to chastise and correct this laxity. Surely, they +had argued, God was not on the side of those who kept an untilled field. +So they had butchered these old ladies and slaughtered these children +just to show us the consequences: + + "All along of dirtiness, all along of mess, + All along of doing things rather more or less." + +The very justification our English poet has found for a thousand +overbearing actions in the East! "Forget not order and the real," that +was the underlying message of bomb and gas and submarine. After all, +what right had we English _not_ to have a gun or an aeroplane fit to +bring down that Zeppelin ignominiously and conclusively? Had we not +undertaken Empire? Were we not the leaders of great nations? Had we +indeed much right to complain if our imperial pose was flouted? "There, +at least," said Mr. Britling's reason, "is one of the lines of thought +that brought that unseen cruelty out of the night high over the houses +of Filmington-on-Sea. That, in a sense, is the cause of this killing. +Cruel it is and abominable, yes, but is it altogether cruel? Hasn't it, +after all, a sort of stupid rightness?--isn't it a stupid reaction to an +indolence at least equally stupid?" + +What was this rightness that lurked below cruelty? What was the +inspiration of this pressure of spite, this anger that was aroused by +ineffective gentleness and kindliness? Was it indeed an altogether evil +thing; was it not rather an impulse, blind as yet, but in its ultimate +quality _as good as mercy_, greater perhaps in its ultimate values than +mercy? + +This idea had been gathering in Mr. Britling's mind for many weeks; it +had been growing and taking shape as he wrote, making experimental +beginnings for his essay, "The Anatomy of Hate." Is there not, he now +asked himself plainly, a creative and corrective impulse behind all +hate? Is not this malignity indeed only the ape-like precursor of the +great disciplines of a creative state? + +The invincible hopefulness of his sanguine temperament had now got Mr. +Britling well out of the pessimistic pit again. Already he had been on +the verge of his phrase while wandering across the rushy fields towards +Market Saffron; now it came to him again like a legitimate monarch +returning from exile. + +"When hate shall have become creative energy.... + +"Hate which passes into creative power; gentleness which is indolence +and the herald of euthanasia.... + +"Pity is but a passing grace; for mankind will not always be pitiful." + +But meanwhile, meanwhile.... How long were men so to mingle wrong with +right, to be energetic without mercy and kindly without energy?... + +For a time Mr. Britling sat on the lonely parade under the stars and in +the sound of the sea, brooding upon these ideas. + +His mind could make no further steps. It had worked for its spell. His +rage had ebbed away now altogether. His despair was no longer infinite. +But the world was dark and dreadful still. It seemed none the less dark +because at the end there was a gleam of light. It was a gleam of light +far beyond the limits of his own life, far beyond the life of his son. +It had no balm for these sufferings. Between it and himself stretched +the weary generations still to come, generations of bickering and +accusation, greed and faintheartedness, and half truth and the hasty +blow. And all those years would be full of pitiful things, such pitiful +things as the blackened ruins in the town behind, the little grey-faced +corpses, the lives torn and wasted, the hopes extinguished and the +gladness gone.... + +He was no longer thinking of the Germans as diabolical. They were human; +they had a case. It was a stupid case, but our case, too, was a stupid +case. How stupid were all our cases! What was it we missed? Something, +he felt, very close to us, and very elusive. Something that would +resolve a hundred tangled oppositions.... + +His mind hung at that. Back upon his consciousness came crowding the +horrors and desolations that had been his daily food now for three +quarters of a year. He groaned aloud. He struggled against that renewed +envelopment of his spirit. "Oh, blood-stained fools!" he cried, "oh, +pitiful, tormented fools! + +"Even that vile airship was a ship of fools! + +"We are all fools still. Striving apes, irritated beyond measure by our +own striving, easily moved to anger." + +Some train of subconscious suggestion brought a long-forgotten speech +back into Mr. Britling's mind, a speech that is full of that light which +still seeks so mysteriously and indefatigably to break through the +darkness and thickness of the human mind. + +He whispered the words. No unfamiliar words could have had the same +effect of comfort and conviction. + +He whispered it of those men whom he still imagined flying far away +there eastward, through the clear freezing air beneath the stars, those +muffled sailors and engineers who had caused so much pain and agony in +this little town. + +"_Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do._" + + + + +CHAPTER THE FOURTH + +IN THE WEB OF THE INEFFECTIVE + + +Section 1 + +Hugh's letters were becoming a very important influence upon Mr. +Britling's thought. Hugh had always been something of a letter-writer, +and now what was perhaps an inherited desire to set things down was +manifest. He had been accustomed to decorate his letters from school +with absurd little sketches--sometimes his letters had been all +sketches--and now he broke from drawing to writing and back to drawing +in a way that pleased his father mightily. The father loved this queer +trick of caricature; he did not possess it himself, and so it seemed to +him the most wonderful of all Hugh's little equipment of gifts. Mr. +Britling used to carry these letters about until their edges got grimy; +he would show them to any one he felt capable of appreciating their +youthful freshness; he would quote them as final and conclusive evidence +to establish this or that. He did not dream how many thousands of +mothers and fathers were treasuring such documents. He thought other +sons were dull young men by comparison with Hugh. + +The earlier letters told much of the charms of discipline and the open +air. "All the bother about what one has to do with oneself is over," +wrote Hugh. "One has disposed of oneself. That has the effect of a great +relief. Instead of telling oneself that one ought to get up in the +morning, a bugle tells you that.... And there's no nonsense about it, no +chance of lying and arguing about it with oneself.... I begin to see the +sense of men going into monasteries and putting themselves under rules. +One is carried along in a sort of moral automobile instead of trudging +the road...." + +And he was also sounding new physical experiences. + +"Never before," he declared, "have I known what fatigue is. It's a +miraculous thing. One drops down in one's clothes on any hard old thing +and sleeps...." + +And in his early letters he was greatly exercised by the elementary +science of drill and discipline, and the discussion of whether these +things were necessary. He began by assuming that their importance was +overrated. He went on to discover that they constituted the very +essentials of all good soldiering. "In a crisis," he concluded, "there +is no telling what will get hold of a man, his higher instincts or his +lower. He may show courage of a very splendid sort--or a hasty +discretion. A habit is much more trustworthy than an instinct. So +discipline sets up a habit of steady and courageous bearing. If you keep +your head you are at liberty to be splendid. If you lose it, the habit +will carry you through." + +The young man was also very profound upon the effects of the suggestion +of various exercises upon the mind. + +"It is surprising how bloodthirsty one feels in a bayonet charge. We +have to shout; we are encouraged to shout. The effect is to paralyse +one's higher centres. One ceases to question--anything. One becomes a +'bayoneteer.' As I go bounding forward I imagine fat men, succulent men +ahead, and I am filled with the desire to do them in neatly. This sort +of thing--" + +A sketch of slaughter followed, with a large and valiant Hugh leaving a +train of fallen behind him. + +"Not like this. This is how I used to draw it in my innocent childhood, +but it is incorrect. More than one German on the bayonet at a time is an +incumbrance. And it would be swank--a thing we detest in the army." + +The second sketch showed the same brave hero with half a dozen of the +enemy skewered like cat's-meat. + +"As for the widows and children, I disregard 'em." + + +Section 2 + +But presently Hugh began to be bored. + +"Route marching again," he wrote. "For no earthly reason than that they +can do nothing else with us. We are getting no decent musketry training +because there are no rifles. We are wasting half our time. If you +multiply half a week by the number of men in the army you will see we +waste centuries weekly.... If most of these men here had just been +enrolled and left to go about their business while we trained officers +and instructors and got equipment for them, and if they had then been +put through their paces as rapidly as possible, it would have been +infinitely better for the country.... In a sort of way we are keeping +raw; in a sort of way we are getting stale.... I get irritated by this. +I feel we are not being properly done by. + +"Half our men are educated men, reasonably educated, but we are always +being treated as though we were too stupid for words.... + +"No good grousing, I suppose, but after Statesminster and a glimpse of +old Cardinal's way of doing things, one gets a kind of toothache in the +mind at the sight of everything being done twice as slowly and half as +well as it need be." + +He went off at a tangent to describe the men in his platoon. "The best +man in our lot is an ex-grocer's assistant, but in order to save us from +vain generalisations it happens that the worst man--a moon-faced +creature, almost incapable of lacing up his boots without help and +objurgation--is also an ex-grocer's assistant. Our most offensive member +is a little cad with a snub nose, who has read Kipling and imagines he +is the nearest thing that ever has been to Private Ortheris. He goes +about looking for the other two of the Soldiers Three; it is rather like +an unpopular politician trying to form a ministry. And he is +conscientiously foul-mouthed. He feels losing a chance of saying +'bloody' as acutely as a snob feels dropping an H. He goes back +sometimes and says the sentence over again and puts the 'bloody' in. I +used to swear a little out of the range of your parental ear, but +Ortheris has cured me. When he is about I am mincing in my speech. I +perceive now that cursing is a way of chewing one's own dirt. In a +platoon there is no elbow-room for indifference; you must either love or +hate. I have a feeling that my first taste of battle will not be with +Germans, but with Private Ortheris...." + +And one letter was just a picture, a parody of the well-known picture of +the bivouac below and the soldier's dream of return to his beloved +above. But Master Hugh in the dream was embracing an enormous retort, +while a convenient galvanometer registered his emotion and little +tripods danced around him. + + +Section 3 + +Then came a letter which plunged abruptly into criticism. + +"My dear Parent, this is a swearing letter. I must let go to somebody. +And somehow none of the other chaps are convenient. I don't know if I +ought to be put against a wall and shot for it, but I hereby declare +that all the officers of this battalion over and above the rank of +captain are a constellation of incapables--and several of the captains +are herewith included. Some of them are men of a pleasant disposition +and carefully aborted mental powers, and some are men of an unpleasant +disposition and no mental powers at all. And I believe--a little +enlightened by your recent letter to _The Times_--that they are a fair +sample of the entire 'army' class which has got to win this war. Usually +they are indolent, but when they are thoroughly roused they are fussy. +The time they should spend in enlarging their minds and increasing their +military efficiency they devote to keeping fit. They are, roughly +speaking, fit--for nothing. They cannot move us thirty miles without +getting half of us left about, without losing touch with food and +shelter, and starving us for thirty-six hours or so in the process, and +they cannot count beyond the fingers of one hand, not having learnt to +use the nose for arithmetical operations.... I conclude this war is +going to be a sort of Battle of Inkerman on a large scale. We chaps in +the ranks will have to do the job. Leading is 'off.'... + +"All of this, my dear Parent, is just a blow off. I have been needlessly +starved, and fagged to death and exasperated. We have moved +five-and-twenty miles across country--in fifty-seven hours. And without +food for about eighteen hours. I have been with my Captain, who has been +billeting us here in Cheasingholt. Oh, he is a MUFF! Oh God! oh God of +Heaven! what a MUFF! He is afraid of printed matter, but he controls +himself heroically. He prides himself upon having no 'sense of locality, +confound it!' Prides himself! He went about this village, which is a +little dispersed, at a slight trot, and wouldn't avail himself of the +one-inch map I happened to have. He judged the capacity of each room +with his eye and wouldn't let me measure, even with God's own paces. Not +with the legs I inherit. 'We'll put five fellahs hea!' he said. 'What +d'you want to measure the room for? We haven't come to lay down +carpets.' Then, having assigned men by _coup d'oeil_, so as to congest +half the village miserably, he found the other half unoccupied and had +to begin all over again. 'If you measured the floor space first, sir,' I +said, 'and made a list of the houses--' 'That isn't the way I'm going to +do it,' he said, fixing me with a pitiless eye.... + +"That isn't the way they are going to do it, Daddy! The sort of thing +that is done over here in the green army will be done over there in the +dry. They won't be in time; they'll lose their guns where now they lose +our kitchens. I'm a mute soldier; I've got to do what I'm told; still, +I begin to understand the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. + +"They say the relations of men and officers in the new army are +beautiful. Some day I may learn to love my officer--but not just yet. +Not till I've forgotten the operations leading up to the occupation of +Cheasingholt.... He muffs his real job without a blush, and yet he would +rather be shot than do his bootlaces up criss-cross. What I say about +officers applies only and solely to him really.... How well I understand +now the shooting of officers by their men.... But indeed, fatigue and +exasperation apart, this shift has been done atrociously...." + +The young man returned to these criticisms in a later letter. + +"You will think I am always carping, but it does seem to me that nearly +everything is being done here in the most wasteful way possible. We +waste time, we waste labour, we waste material, oh Lord! how we waste +our country's money. These aren't, I can assure you, the opinions of a +conceited young man. It's nothing to be conceited about.... We're bored +to death by standing about this infernal little village. There is +nothing to do--except trail after a small number of slatternly young +women we despise and hate. I _don't_, Daddy. And I don't drink. Why have +I inherited no vices? We had a fight here yesterday--sheer boredom. +Ortheris has a swollen lip, and another private has a bad black eye. +There is to be a return match. I perceive the chief horror of warfare is +boredom.... + +"Our feeding here is typical of the whole system. It is a system +invented not with any idea of getting the best results--that does not +enter into the War Office philosophy--but to have a rule for everything, +and avoid arguments. There is rather too generous an allowance of bread +and stuff per man, and there is a very fierce but not very efficient +system of weighing and checking. A rather too generous allowance is, of +course, a direct incentive to waste or stealing--as any one but our +silly old duffer of a War Office would know. The checking is for +quantity, which any fool can understand, rather than for quality. The +test for the quality of army meat is the smell. If it doesn't smell bad, +it is good.... + +"Then the raw material is handed over to a cook. He is a common soldier +who has been made into a cook by a simple ceremony. He is told, 'You are +a cook.' He does his best to be. Usually he roasts or bakes to begin +with, guessing when the joint is done, afterwards he hacks up what is +left of his joints and makes a stew for next day. A stew is hacked meat +boiled up in a big pot. It has much fat floating on the top. After you +have eaten your fill you want to sit about quiet. The men are fed +usually in a large tent or barn. We have a barn. It is not a clean barn, +and just to make it more like a picnic there are insufficient plates, +knives and forks. (I tell you, no army people can count beyond eight or +ten.) The corporals after their morning's work have to carve. When they +have done carving they tell me they feel they have had enough dinner. +They sit about looking pale, and wander off afterwards to the village +pub. (I shall probably become a corporal soon.) In these islands before +the war began there was a surplus of women over men of about a million. +(See the publications of the Fabian Society, now so popular among the +young.) None of these women have been trusted by the government with the +difficult task of cooking and giving out food to our soldiers. No man of +the ordinary soldier class ever cooks anything until he is a soldier.... +All food left over after the stew or otherwise rendered uneatable by the +cook is thrown away. We throw away pail-loads. _We bury meat_.... + +"Also we get three pairs of socks. We work pretty hard. We don't know +how to darn socks. When the heels wear through, come blisters. Bad +blisters disable a man. Of the million of surplus women (see above) the +government has not had the intelligence to get any to darn our socks. +So a certain percentage of us go lame. And so on. And so on. + +"You will think all this is awful grousing, but the point I want to +make--I hereby to ease my feelings make it now in a fair round hand--is +that all this business could be done far better and far cheaper if it +wasn't left to these absolutely inexperienced and extremely exclusive +military gentlemen. They think they are leading England and showing us +all how; instead of which they are just keeping us back. Why in thunder +are they doing everything? Not one of them, when he is at home, is +allowed to order the dinner or poke his nose into his own kitchen or +check the household books.... The ordinary British colonel is a helpless +old gentleman; he ought to have a nurse.... This is not merely the +trivial grievance of my insulted stomach, it is a serious matter for the +country. Sooner or later the country may want the food that is being +wasted in all these capers. In the aggregate it must amount to a daily +destruction of tons of stuff of all sorts. Tons.... Suppose the war +lasts longer than we reckon!" + +From this point Hugh's letter jumped to a general discussion of the +military mind. + +"Our officers are beastly good chaps, nearly all of them. That's where +the perplexity of the whole thing comes in. If only they weren't such +good chaps! If only they were like the Prussian officers to their men, +then we'd just take on a revolution as well as the war, and make +everything tidy at once. But they are decent, they are charming.... Only +they do not think hard, and they do not understand that doing a job +properly means doing it as directly and thought-outly as you possibly +can. They won't worry about things. If their tempers were worse perhaps +their work might be better. They won't use maps or timetables or books +of reference. When we move to a new place they pick up what they can +about it by hearsay; not one of our lot has the gumption to possess a +contoured map or a Michelin guide. They have hearsay minds. They are +fussy and petty and wasteful--and, in the way of getting things done, +pretentious. By their code they're paragons of honour. Courage--they're +all right about that; no end of it; honesty, truthfulness, and so +on--high. They have a kind of horsey standard of smartness and pluck, +too, that isn't bad, and they have a fine horror of whiskers and being +unbuttoned. But the mistake they make is to class thinking with +whiskers, as a sort of fussy sidegrowth. Instead of classing it with +unbuttonedupness. They hate economy. And preparation.... + +"They won't see that inefficiency is a sort of dishonesty. If a man +doesn't steal sixpence, they think it a light matter if he wastes half a +crown. Here follows wisdom! _From the point of view of a nation at war, +sixpence is just a fifth part of half a crown_.... + +"When I began this letter I was boiling with indignation, complicated, I +suspect, by this morning's 'stew'; now I have written thus far I feel +I'm an ungenerous grumbler.... It is remarkable, my dear Parent, that I +let off these things to you. I like writing to you. I couldn't possibly +say the things I can write. Heinrich had a confidential friend at +Breslau to whom he used to write about his Soul. I never had one of +those Teutonic friendships. And I haven't got a Soul. But I have to +write. One must write to some one--and in this place there is nothing +else to do. And now the old lady downstairs is turning down the gas; she +always does at half-past ten. She didn't ought. She gets--ninepence +each. Excuse the pencil...." + +That letter ended abruptly. The next two were brief and cheerful. Then +suddenly came a new note. + +"We've got rifles! We're real armed soldiers at last. Every blessed man +has got a rifle. And they come from Japan! They are of a sort of light +wood that is like new oak and art furniture, and makes one feel that +one belongs to the First Garden Suburb Regiment; but I believe much can +be done with linseed oil. And they are real rifles, they go bang. We are +a little light-headed about them. Only our training and discipline +prevent our letting fly at incautious spectators on the skyline. I saw a +man yesterday about half a mile off. I was possessed by the idea that I +could get him--right in the middle.... Ortheris, the little beast, has +got a motor-bicycle, which he calls his 'b----y oto'--no one knows +why--and only death or dishonourable conduct will save me, I gather, +from becoming a corporal in the course of the next month...." + + +Section 4 + +A subsequent letter threw fresh light on the career of the young man +with the "oto." Before the rifle and the "oto," and in spite of his +fights with some person or persons unknown, Ortheris found trouble. Hugh +told the story with the unblushing _savoir-faire_ of the very young. + +"By the by, Ortheris, following the indications of his creator and +succumbing to the universal boredom before the rifles came, forgot Lord +Kitchener's advice and attempted 'seduktion.' With painful results which +he insists upon confiding to the entire platoon. He has been severely +smacked and scratched by the proposed victim, and warned off the +premises (licensed premises) by her father and mother--both formidable +persons. They did more than warn him off the premises. They had +displayed neither a proper horror of Don Juan nor a proper respect for +the King's uniform. Mother, we realise, got hold of him and cuffed him +severely. 'What the 'ell's a chap to do?' cried Ortheris. 'You can't go +'itting a woman back.' Father had set a dog on him. A less ingenuous +character would be silent about such passages--I should be too +egotistical and humiliated altogether--but that is not his quality. He +tells us in tones of naive wonder. He talks about it and talks about +it. 'I don't care what the old woman did,' he says, 'not--reely. What +'urts me about it is that I jest made a sort of mistake 'ow _she'd_ tike +it. You see, I sort of feel I've 'urt and insulted _'er_. And reely I +didn't mean to. Swap me, I didn't mean to. Gawd 'elp me. I wouldn't 'ave +'ad it 'appened as it 'as 'appened, not for worlds. And now I can't get +round to 'er, or anyfing, not to explain.... You chaps may laugh, but +you don't know what there is _in_ it.... I tell you it worries me +something frightful. You think I'm just a little cad who took liberties +he didn't ought to. (Note of anger drowning uncharitable grunts of +assent.) 'Ow the 'ell is 'e to know _when_ 'e didn't ought to? ... I +_swear_ she liked me....' + +"This kind of thing goes on for hours--in the darkness. + +"'I'd got regular sort of fond of 'er.' + +"And the extraordinary thing is it makes me begin to get regular fond of +Ortheris. + +"I think it is because the affair has surprised him right out of acting +Ortheris and Tommy Atkins for a bit, into his proper self. He's +frightfully like some sort of mongrel with a lot of wiry-haired terrier +and a touch of Airedale in it. A mongrel you like in spite of the +flavour of all the horrid things he's been nosing into. And he's as hard +as nails and, my dear daddy! he can't box for nuts." + + +Section 5 + +Mr. Britling, with an understanding much quickened by Hugh's letters, +went about Essex in his automobile, and on one or two journeys into +Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, and marked the steady conversion of the +old pacific countryside into an armed camp. He was disposed to minimise +Hugh's criticisms. He found in them something of the harshness of youth, +which is far too keen-edged to be tolerant with half performance and +our poor human evasion of perfection's overstrain. "Our poor human +evasion of perfection's overstrain"; this phrase was Mr. Britling's. To +Mr. Britling, looking less closely and more broadly, the new army was a +pride and a marvel. + +He liked to come into some quiet village and note the clusters of sturdy +khaki-clad youngsters going about their business, the tethered horses, +the air of subdued bustle, the occasional glimpses of guns and +ammunition trains. Wherever one went now there were soldiers and still +more soldiers. There was a steady flow of men into Flanders, and +presently to Gallipoli, but it seemed to have no effect upon the +multitude in training at home. He was pleasantly excited by the evident +increase in the proportion of military material upon the railways; he +liked the promise and mystery of the long lines of trucks bearing +tarpaulin-covered wagons and carts and guns that he would pass on his +way to Liverpool Street station. He could apprehend defeat in the +silence of the night, but when he saw the men, when he went about the +land, then it was impossible to believe in any end but victory.... + +But through the spring and summer there was no victory. The "great +offensive" of May was checked and abandoned after a series of +ineffective and very costly attacks between Ypres and Soissons. The +Germans had developed a highly scientific defensive in which +machine-guns replaced rifles and a maximum of punishment was inflicted +upon an assaulting force with a minimum of human loss. The War Office +had never thought much of machine-guns before, but now it thought a good +deal. Moreover, the energies of Britain were being turned more and more +towards the Dardanelles. + +The idea of an attack upon the Dardanelles had a traditional +attractiveness for the British mind. Old men had been brought up from +childhood with "forcing the Dardanelles" as a familiar phrase; it had +none of the flighty novelty and vulgarity about it that made an "aerial +offensive" seem so unwarrantable a proceeding. Forcing the Dardanelles +was historically British. It made no break with tradition. Soon after +Turkey entered the war British submarines appeared in the Sea of +Marmora, and in February a systematic bombardment of the Dardanelles +began; this was continued intermittently for a month, the defenders +profiting by their experiences and by spells of bad weather to +strengthen their works. This first phase of the attack culminated in the +loss of the _Irresistible_, _Ocean_, and _Bouvet_, when on the 17th of +March the attacking fleet closed in upon the Narrows. After an interlude +of six weeks to allow of further preparations on the part of the +defenders, who were now thoroughly alive to what was coming, the Allied +armies gathered upon the scene, and a difficult and costly landing was +achieved at two points upon the peninsula of Gallipoli. With that began +a slow and bloody siege of the defences of the Dardanelles, clambering +up to the surprise landing of a fresh British army in Suvla Bay in +August, and its failure in the battle of Anafarta, through incompetent +commanders and a general sloppiness of leading, to cut off and capture +Maidos and the Narrows defences.... Meanwhile the Russian hosts, which +had reached their high-water mark in the capture of Przemysl, were being +forced back first in the south and then in the north. The Germans +recaptured Lemberg, entered Warsaw, and pressed on to take Brest +Litowsk. The Russian lines rolled back with an impressive effect of +defeat, and the Germans thrust towards Riga and Petrograd, reaching +Vilna about the middle of September.... + +Day after day Mr. Britling traced the swaying fortunes of the conflict, +with impatience, with perplexity, but with no loss of confidence in the +ultimate success of Britain. The country was still swarming with troops, +and still under summer sunshine. A second hay harvest redeemed the +scantiness of the first, the wheat crops were wonderful, and the great +fig tree at the corner of the Dower House had never borne so bountifully +nor such excellent juicy figs.... + +And one day in early June while those figs were still only a hope, Teddy +appeared at the Dower House with Letty, to say good-bye before going to +the front. He was going out in a draft to fill up various gaps and +losses; he did not know where. Essex was doing well but bloodily over +there. Mrs. Britling had tea set out upon the lawn under the blue cedar, +and Mr. Britling found himself at a loss for appropriate sayings, and +talked in his confusion almost as though Teddy's departure was of no +significance at all. He was still haunted by that odd sense of +responsibility for Teddy. Teddy was not nearly so animated as he had +been in his pre-khaki days; there was a quiet exaltation in his manner +rather than a lively excitement. He knew now what he was in for. He knew +now that war was not a lark, that for him it was to be the gravest +experience he had ever had or was likely to have. There were no more +jokes about Letty's pension, and a general avoidance of the topics of +high explosives and asphyxiating gas.... + +Mr. and Mrs. Britling took the young people to the gate. + +"Good luck!" cried Mr. Britling as they receded. + +Teddy replied with a wave of the hand. + +Mr. Britling stood watching them for some moments as they walked towards +the little cottage which was to be the scene of their private parting. + +"I don't like his going," he said. "I hope it will be all right with +him.... Teddy's so grave nowadays. It's a mean thing, I know, it has +none of the Roman touch, but I am glad that this can't happen with +Hugh--" He computed. "Not for a year and three months, even if they +march him into it upon his very birthday.... + +"It may all he over by then...." + + +Section 6 + +In that computation he reckoned without Hugh. + +Within a month Hugh was also saying "Good-bye." + +"But how's this?" protested Mr. Britling, who had already guessed the +answer. "You're not nineteen." + +"I'm nineteen enough for this job," said Hugh. "In fact, I enlisted as +nineteen." + +Mr. Britling said nothing for a little while. Then he spoke with a catch +in his breath. "I don't blame you," he said. "It was--the right spirit." + +Drill and responsibilities of non-commissioned rank had imposed a novel +manliness upon the bearing of Corporal Britling. "I always classified a +little above my age at Statesminster," he said as though that cleared up +everything. + +He looked at a rosebud as though it interested him. Then he remarked +rather casually: + +"I thought," he said, "that if I was to go to war I'd better do the +thing properly. It seemed--sort of half and half--not to be eligible for +the trenches.... I ought to have told you...." + +"Yes," Mr. Britling decided. + +"I was shy about it at first.... I thought perhaps the war would be over +before it was necessary to discuss anything.... Didn't want to go into +it." + +"Exactly," said Mr. Britling as though that was a complete explanation. + +"It's been a good year for your roses," said Hugh. + + +Section 7 + +Hugh was to stop the night. He spent what seemed to him and every one a +long, shy, inexpressive evening. Only the small boys were really natural +and animated. They were much impressed and excited by his departure, and +wanted to ask a hundred questions about the life in the trenches. Many +of them Hugh had to promise to answer when he got there. Then he would +see just exactly how things were. Mrs. Britling was motherly and +intelligent about his outfit. "Will you want winter things?" she +asked.... + +But when he was alone with his father after every one had gone to bed +they found themselves able to talk. + +"This sort of thing seems more to us than it would be to a French +family," Hugh remarked, standing on the hearthrug. + +"Yes," agreed Mr. Britling. "Their minds would be better prepared.... +They'd have their appropriate things to say. They have been educated by +the tradition of service--and '71." + +Then he spoke--almost resentfully. + +"The older men ought to go before you boys. Who is to carry on if a lot +of you get killed?" + +Hugh reflected. "In the stiffest battle that ever can be the odds are +against getting killed," he said. + +"I suppose they are." + +"One in three or four in the very hottest corners." + +Mr. Britling expressed no satisfaction. + +"Every one is going through something of this sort." + +"All the decent people, at any rate," said Mr. Britling.... + +"It will be an extraordinary experience. Somehow it seems out of +proportion--" + +"With what?" + +"With life generally. As one has known it." + +"It isn't in proportion," Mr. Britling admitted. + +"Incommensurables," said Hugh. + +He considered his phrasing. "It's not," he said, "as though one was +going into another part of the same world, or turning up another side of +the world one was used to. It is just as if one had been living in a +room and one had been asked to step outside.... It makes me think of a +queer little thing that happened when I was in London last winter. I +got into Queer Company. I don't think I told you. I went to have supper +with some students in Chelsea. I hadn't been to the place before, but +they seemed all right--just people like me--and everybody. And after +supper they took me on to some people _they_ didn't know very well; +people who had to do with some School of Dramatic Art. There were two or +three young actresses there and a singer and people of that sort, +sitting about smoking cigarettes, and we began talking plays and books +and picture shows and all that stuff; and suddenly there was a knocking +at the door and some one went out and found a policeman with a warrant +on the landing. They took off our host's son.... It had to do with a +murder...." + +Hugh paused. "It was the Bedford Mansions mystery. I don't suppose you +remember about it or read about it at the time. He'd killed a man.... It +doesn't matter about the particulars anyhow, but what I mean is the +effect. The effect of a comfortable well-lit orderly room and the sense +of harmless people--and then the door opening and the policeman and the +cold draught flowing in. _Murder!_ A girl who seemed to know the people +well explained to me in whispers what was happening. It was like the +opening of a trap-door going down into some pit you have always known +was there, but never really believed in." + +"I know," said Mr. Britling. "I know." + +"That's just how I feel about this war business. There's no real death +over here. It's laid out and boxed up. And accidents are all padded +about. If one got a toss from a horse here, you'd be in bed and +comfortable in no time.... And there; it's like another planet. It's +outside.... I'm going outside.... Instead of there being no death +anywhere, it is death everywhere, outside there. We shall be using our +utmost wits to kill each other. A kind of reverse to this world." + +Mr. Britling nodded. + +"I've never seen a dead body yet. In Dower-House land there aren't dead +bodies." + +"We've kept things from you--horrid things of that sort." + +"I'm not complaining," said Hugh.... "But--Master Hugh--the Master Hugh +you kept things from--will never come back." + +He went on quickly as his father raised distressed eyes to him. "I mean +that anyhow _this_ Hugh will never come back. Another one may. But I +shall have been outside, and it will all be different...." + +He paused. Never had Mr. Britling been so little disposed to take up the +discourse. + +"Like a man," he said, seeking an image and doing no more than imitate +his son's; "who goes out of a busy lighted room through a trap-door into +a blizzard, to mend the roof...." + +For some moments neither father nor son said anything more. They had a +queer sense of insurmountable insufficiency. Neither was saying what he +had wanted to say to the other, but it was not clear to them now what +they had to say to one another.... + +"It's wonderful," said Mr. Britling. + +Hugh could only manage: "The world has turned right over...." + +"The job has to be done," said Mr. Britling. + +"The job has to be done," said Hugh. + +The pause lengthened. + +"You'll be getting up early to-morrow," said Mr. Britling.... + + +Section 8 + +When Mr. Britling was alone in his own room all the thoughts and +feelings that had been held up downstairs began to run more and more +rapidly and abundantly through his mind. + +He had a feeling--every now and again in the last few years he had had +the same feeling--as though he was only just beginning to discover Hugh. +This perpetual rediscovery of one's children is the experience of every +observant parent. He had always considered Hugh as a youth, and now a +man stood over him and talked, as one man to another. And this man, this +very new man, mint new and clean and clear, filled Mr. Britling with +surprise and admiration. + +It was as if he perceived the beauty of youth for the first time in +Hugh's slender, well balanced, khaki-clad body. There was infinite +delicacy in his clear complexion, his clear eyes; the delicately +pencilled eyebrow that was so exactly like his mother's. And this thing +of brightness and bravery talked as gravely and as wisely as any +weather-worn, shop-soiled, old fellow.... + +The boy was wise. + +Hugh thought for himself; he thought round and through his position, not +egotistically but with a quality of responsibility. He wasn't just +hero-worshipping and imitating, just spinning some self-centred romance. +If he was a fair sample of his generation then it was a better +generation than Mr. Britling's had been.... + +At that Mr. Britling's mind went off at a tangent to the grievance of +the rejected volunteer. It was acutely shameful to him that all these +fine lads should be going off to death and wounds while the men of forty +and over lay snug at home. How stupid it was to fix things like that! +Here were the fathers, who had done their work, shot their bolts, +returned some value for the costs of their education, unable to get +training, unable to be of any service, shamefully safe, doing April fool +work as special constables; while their young innocents, untried, all +their gathering possibilities of service unbroached, went down into the +deadly trenches.... The war would leave the world a world of cripples +and old men and children.... + +He felt himself as a cowardly brute, fat, wheezy, out of training, +sheltering behind this dear one branch of Mary's life. + +He writhed with impotent humiliation.... + +How stupidly the world is managed. + +He began to fret and rage. He could not lie in peace in his bed; he got +up and prowled about his room, blundering against chairs and tables in +the darkness.... We were too stupid to do the most obvious things; we +were sending all these boys into hardship and pitiless danger; we were +sending them ill-equipped, insufficiently supported, we were sending our +children through the fires to Moloch, because essentially we English +were a world of indolent, pampered, sham good-humoured, old and +middle-aged men. (So he distributed the intolerable load of +self-accusation.) Why was he doing nothing to change things, to get them +better? What was the good of an assumed modesty, an effort at tolerance +for and confidence in these boozy old lawyers, these ranting platform +men, these stiff-witted officers and hide-bound officials? They were +butchering the youth of England. Old men sat out of danger contriving +death for the lads in the trenches. That was the reality of the thing. +"My son!" he cried sharply in the darkness. His sense of our national +deficiencies became tormentingly, fantastically acute. It was as if all +his cherished delusions had fallen from the scheme of things.... What +was the good of making believe that up there they were planning some +great counter-stroke that would end in victory? It was as plain as +daylight that they had neither the power of imagination nor the +collective intelligence even to conceive of a counter-stroke. Any dull +mass may resist, but only imagination can strike. Imagination! To the +end we should not strike. We might strike through the air. We might +strike across the sea. We might strike hard at Gallipoli instead of +dribbling inadequate armies thither as our fathers dribbled men at the +Redan.... But the old men would sit at their tables, replete and sleepy, +and shake their cunning old heads. The press would chatter and make odd +ambiguous sounds like a shipload of monkeys in a storm. The political +harridans would get the wrong men appointed, would attack every possible +leader with scandal and abuse and falsehood.... + +The spirit and honour and drama had gone out of this war. + +Our only hope now was exhaustion. Our only strategy was to barter blood +for blood--trusting that our tank would prove the deeper.... + +While into this tank stepped Hugh, young and smiling.... + +The war became a nightmare vision.... + + +Section 9 + +In the morning Mr. Britling's face was white from his overnight brain +storm, and Hugh's was fresh from wholesome sleep. They walked about the +lawn, and Mr. Britling talked hopefully of the general outlook until it +was time for them to start to the station.... + +The little old station-master grasped the situation at once, and +presided over their last hand-clasp. + +"Good luck, Hugh!" cried Mr. Britling. + +"Good luck!" cried the little old station-master. + +"It's not easy a-parting," he said to Mr. Britling as the train slipped +down the line. "There's been many a parting hea' since this here old war +began. Many. And some as won't come back again neether." + + +Section 10 + +For some days Mr. Britling could think of nothing but Hugh, and always +with a dull pain at his heart. He felt as he had felt long ago while he +had waited downstairs and Hugh upstairs had been under the knife of a +surgeon. But this time the operation went on and still went on. At the +worst his boy had but one chance in five of death or serious injury, but +for a time he could think of nothing but that one chance. He felt it +pressing upon his mind, pressing him down.... + +Then instead of breaking under that pressure, he was released by the +trick of the sanguine temperament. His mind turned over, abruptly, to +the four chances out of five. It was like a dislocated joint slipping +back into place. It was as sudden as that. He found he had adapted +himself to the prospect of Hugh in mortal danger. It had become a fact +established, a usual thing. He could bear with it and go about his +affairs. + +He went up to London, and met other men at the club in the same +emotional predicament. He realised that it was neither very wonderful +nor exceptionally tragic now to have a son at the front. + +"My boy is in Gallipoli," said one. "It's tough work there." + +"My lad's in Flanders," said Mr. Britling. "Nothing would satisfy him +but the front. He's three months short of eighteen. He misstated his +age." + +And they went on to talk newspaper just as if the world was where it had +always been. + +But until a post card came from Hugh Mr. Britling watched the postman +like a lovesick girl. + +Hugh wrote more frequently than his father had dared to hope, pencilled +letters for the most part. It was as if he was beginning to feel an +inherited need for talk, and was a little at a loss for a sympathetic +ear. Park, his schoolmate, who had enlisted with him, wasn't, it seemed, +a theoriser. "Park becomes a martinet," Hugh wrote. "Also he is a +sergeant now, and this makes rather a gulf between us." Mr. Britling had +the greatest difficulty in writing back. There were many grave deep +things he wanted to say, and never did. Instead he gave elaborate +details of the small affairs of the Dower House. Once or twice, with a +half-unconscious imitation of his boy's style, he took a shot at the +theological and philosophical hares that Hugh had started. But the +exemplary letters that he composed of nights from a Father to a Son at +War were never written down. It was just as well, for there are many +things of that sort that are good to think and bad to say.... + +Hugh was not very explicit about his position or daily duties. What he +wrote now had to pass through the hands of a Censor, and any sort of +definite information might cause the suppression of his letter. Mr. +Britling conceived him for the most part as quartered some way behind +the front, but in a flat, desolated country and within hearing of great +guns. He assisted his imagination with the illustrated papers. Sometimes +he put him farther back into pleasant old towns after the fashion of +Beauvais, and imagined loitering groups in the front of cafes; sometimes +he filled in the obvious suggestions of the phrase that all the Pas de +Calais was now one vast British camp. Then he crowded the picture with +tethered horses and tents and grey-painted wagons, and Hugh in the +foreground--bare-armed, with a bucket.... + +Hugh's letters divided themselves pretty fairly between two main topics; +the first was the interest of the art of war, the second the reaction +against warfare. "After one has got over the emotion of it," he wrote, +"and when one's mind has just accepted and forgotten (as it does) the +horrors and waste of it all, then I begin to perceive that war is +absolutely the best game in the world. That is the real strength of war, +I submit. Not as you put it in that early pamphlet of yours; ambition, +cruelty, and all those things. Those things give an excuse for war, they +rush timid and base people into war, but the essential matter is the +hold of the thing itself upon an active imagination. It's such a big +game. Instead of being fenced into a field and tied down to one set of +tools as you are in almost every other game, you have all the world to +play and you may use whatever you can use. You can use every scrap of +imagination and invention that is in you. And it's wonderful.... But +real soldiers aren't cruel. And war isn't cruel in its essence. Only in +its consequences. Over here one gets hold of scraps of talk that light +up things. Most of the barbarities were done--it is quite clear--by an +excited civilian sort of men, men in a kind of inflamed state. The great +part of the German army in the early stage of the war was really an army +of demented civilians. Trained civilians no doubt, but civilians in +soul. They were nice orderly clean law-abiding men suddenly torn up by +the roots and flung into quite shocking conditions. They felt they were +rushing at death, and that decency was at an end. They thought every +Belgian had a gun behind the hedge and a knife in his trouser leg. They +saw villages burning and dead people, and men smashed to bits. They +lived in a kind of nightmare. They didn't know what they were doing. +They did horrible things just as one does them sometimes in dreams...." + +He flung out his conclusion with just his mother's leaping +consecutiveness. "Conscript soldiers are the ruin of war.... Half the +Germans and a lot of the French ought never to have been brought within +ten miles of a battlefield. + +"What makes all this so plain are the diaries the French and English +have been finding on the dead. You know at the early state of the war +every German soldier was expected to keep a diary. He was ordered to do +it. The idea was to keep him interested in the war. Consequently, from +the dead and wounded our people have got thousands.... It helps one to +realise that the Germans aren't really soldiers at all. Not as our men +are. They are obedient, law-abiding, intelligent people, who have been +shoved into this. They have to see the war as something romantic and +melodramatic, or as something moral, or as tragic fate. They have to +bellow songs about 'Deutschland,' or drag in 'Gott.' They don't take to +the game as our men take to the game.... + +"I confess I'm taking to the game. I wish at times I had gone into the +O.T.C. with Teddy, and got a better hold of it. I was too high-browed +about this war business. I dream now of getting a commission.... + +"That diary-hunting strategy is just the sort of thing that makes this +war intellectually fascinating. Everything is being thought out and then +tried over that can possibly make victory. The Germans go in for +psychology much more than we do, just as they go in for war more than we +do, but they don't seem to be really clever about it. So they set out to +make all their men understand the war, while our chaps are singing +'Tipperary.' But what the men put down aren't the beautiful things they +ought to put down; most of them shove down lists of their meals, some of +the diaries are all just lists of things eaten, and a lot of them have +written the most damning stuff about outrages and looting. Which the +French are translating and publishing. The Germans would give anything +now to get back these silly diaries. And now they have made an order +that no one shall go into battle with any written papers at all.... Our +people got so keen on documenting and the value of chance writings that +one of the principal things to do after a German attack had failed had +been to hook in the documentary dead, and find out what they had on +them.... It's a curious sport, this body fishing. You have a sort of +triple hook on a rope, and you throw it and drag. They do the same. The +other day one body near Hooghe was hooked by both sides, and they had a +tug-of-war. With a sharpshooter or so cutting in whenever our men got +too excited. Several men were hit. The Irish--it was an Irish +regiment--got him--or at least they got the better part of him.... + +"Now that I am a sergeant, Park talks to me again about all these +things, and we have a first lieutenant too keen to resist such technical +details. They are purely technical details. You must take them as that. +One does not think of the dead body as a man recently deceased, who had +perhaps a wife and business connections and a weakness for oysters or +pale brandy. Or as something that laughed and cried and didn't like +getting hurt. That would spoil everything. One thinks of him merely as a +uniform with marks upon it that will tell us what kind of stuff we have +against us, and possibly with papers that will give us a hint of how far +he and his lot are getting sick of the whole affair.... + +"There's a kind of hardening not only of the body but of the mind +through all this life out here. One is living on a different level. You +know--just before I came away--you talked of Dower-House-land--and +outside. This is outside. It's different. Our men here are kind enough +still to little things--kittens or birds or flowers. Behind the front, +for example, everywhere there are Tommy gardens. Some are quite bright +little patches. But it's just nonsense to suppose we are tender to the +wounded up here--and, putting it plainly, there isn't a scrap of pity +left for the enemy. Not a scrap. Not a trace of such feeling. They were +tender about the wounded in the early days--men tell me--and reverent +about the dead. It's all gone now. There have been atrocities, gas, +unforgettable things. Everything is harder. Our people are inclined now +to laugh at a man who gets hit, and to be annoyed at a man with a +troublesome wound. The other day, they say, there was a big dead German +outside the Essex trenches. He became a nuisance, and he was dragged in +and taken behind the line and buried. After he was buried, a kindly soul +was putting a board over him with 'Somebody's Fritz' on it, when a shell +burst close by. It blew the man with the board a dozen yards and wounded +him, and it restored Fritz to the open air. He was lifted clean out. He +flew head over heels like a windmill. This was regarded as a tremendous +joke against the men who had been at the pains of burying him. For a +time nobody else would touch Fritz, who was now some yards behind his +original grave. Then as he got worse and worse he was buried again by +some devoted sanitarians, and this time the inscription was 'Somebody's +Fritz. R.I.P.' And as luck would have it, he was spun up again. In +pieces. The trench howled with laughter and cries of 'Good old Fritz!' +'This isn't the Resurrection, Fritz.'... + +"Another thing that appeals to the sunny humour of the trenches as a +really delicious practical joke is the trick of the fuses. We have two +kinds of fuse, a slow-burning fuse such as is used for hand-grenades and +such-like things, a sort of yard-a-minute fuse, and a rapid fuse that +goes a hundred yards a second--for firing mines and so on. The latter is +carefully distinguished from the former by a conspicuous red thread. +Also, as you know, it is the habit of the enemy and ourselves when the +trenches are near enough, to enliven each other by the casting of homely +but effective hand-grenades made out of tins. When a grenade drops in a +British trench somebody seizes it instantly and throws it back. To hoist +the German with his own petard is particularly sweet to the British +mind. When a grenade drops into a German trench everybody runs. (At +least that is what I am told happens by the men from our trenches; +though possibly each side has its exceptions.) If the bomb explodes, it +explodes. If it doesn't, Hans and Fritz presently come creeping back to +see what has happened. Sometimes the fuse hasn't caught properly, it has +been thrown by a nervous man; or it hasn't burnt properly. Then Hans or +Fritz puts in a new fuse and sends it back with loving care. To hoist +the Briton with his own petard is particularly sweet to the German +mind.... But here it is that military genius comes in. Some gifted +spirit on our side procured (probably by larceny) a length of mine fuse, +the rapid sort, and spent a laborious day removing the red thread and +making it into the likeness of its slow brother. Then bits of it were +attached to tin-bombs and shied--unlit of course--into the German +trenches. A long but happy pause followed. I can see the chaps holding +themselves in. Hans and Fritz were understood to be creeping back, to be +examining the unlit fuse, to be applying a light thereunto, in order to +restore it to its maker after their custom.... + +"A loud bang in the German trenches indicated the moment of lighting, +and the exit of Hans and Fritz to worlds less humorous. + +"The genius in the British trenches went on with the preparation of the +next surprise bomb--against the arrival of Kurt and Karl.... + +"Hans, Fritz, Kurt, Karl, Michael and Wilhelm; it went for quite a long +time before they grew suspicious.... + +"You once wrote that all fighting ought to be done nowadays by metal +soldiers. I perceive, my dear Daddy, that all real fighting is...." + + +Section 11 + +Not all Hugh's letters were concerned with these grim technicalities. It +was not always that news and gossip came along; it was rare that a young +man with a commission would condescend to talk shop to two young men +without one; there were few newspapers and fewer maps, and even in +France and within sound of guns, Hugh could presently find warfare +almost as much a bore as it had been at times in England. But his +criticism of military methods died away. "Things are done better out +here," he remarked, and "We're nearer reality here. I begin to respect +my Captain. Who is developing a sense of locality. Happily for our +prospects." And in another place he speculated in an oddly +characteristic manner whether he was getting used to the army way, +whether he was beginning to see the sense of the army way, or whether +it really was that the army way braced up nearer and nearer to +efficiency as it got nearer to the enemy. "And here one hasn't the +haunting feeling that war is after all an hallucination. It's already +common sense and the business of life.... + +"In England I always had a sneaking idea that I had 'dressed up' in my +uniform.... + +"I never dreamt before I came here how much war is a business of waiting +about and going through duties and exercises that were only too +obviously a means of preventing our discovering just how much waiting +about we were doing. I suppose there is no great harm in describing the +place I am in here; it's a kind of scenery that is somehow all of a +piece with the life we lead day by day. It is a village that has been +only partly smashed up; it has never been fought through, indeed the +Germans were never within two miles of it, but it was shelled +intermittently for months before we made our advance. Almost all the +houses are still standing, but there is not a window left with a square +foot of glass in the place. One or two houses have been burnt out, and +one or two are just as though they had been kicked to pieces by a +lunatic giant. We sleep in batches of four or five on the floors of the +rooms; there are very few inhabitants about, but the village inn still +goes on. It has one poor weary billiard-table, very small with very big +balls, and the cues are without tops; it is The Amusement of the place. +Ortheris does miracles at it. When he leaves the army he says he's going +to be a marker, 'a b----y marker.' The country about us is +flat--featureless--desolate. How I long for hills, even for Essex mud +hills. Then the road runs on towards the front, a brick road frightfully +worn, lined with poplars. Just at the end of the village mechanical +transport ends and there is a kind of depot from which all the stuff +goes up by mules or men or bicycles to the trenches. It is the only +movement in the place, and I have spent hours watching men shift grub or +ammunition or lending them a hand. All day one hears guns, a kind of +thud at the stomach, and now and then one sees an aeroplane, very high +and small. Just beyond this point there is a group of poplars which have +been punished by a German shell. They are broken off and splintered in +the most astonishing way; all split and ravelled out like the end of a +cane that has been broken and twisted to get the ends apart. The choice +of one's leisure is to watch the A.S.C. or play football, twenty a side, +or sit about indoors, or stand in the doorway, or walk down to the +Estaminet and wait five or six deep for the billiard-table. Ultimately +one sits. And so you get these unconscionable letters." + +"Unconscionable," said Mr. Britling. "Of course--he will grow out of +that sort of thing. + +"And he'll write some day, sure enough. He'll write." + +He went on reading the letter. + +"We read, of course. But there never could be a library here big enough +to keep us going. We can do with all sorts of books, but I don't think +the ordinary sensational novel is quite the catch it was for a lot of +them in peace time. Some break towards serious reading in the oddest +fashion. Old Park, for example, says he wants books you can chew; he is +reading a cheap edition of 'The Origin of Species.' He used to regard +Florence Warden and William le Queux as the supreme delights of print. I +wish you could send him Metchnikoff's 'Nature of Man' or Pearson's +'Ethics of Freethought.' I feel I am building up his tender mind. Not +for me though, Daddy. Nothing of that sort for me. These things take +people differently. What I want here is literary opium. I want something +about fauns and nymphs in broad low glades. I would like to read +Spenser's 'Faerie Queen.' I don't think I have read it, and yet I have a +very distinct impression of knights and dragons and sorcerers and wicked +magic ladies moving through a sort of Pre-Raphaelite tapestry +scenery--only with a light on them. I could do with some Hewlett of the +'Forest Lovers' kind. Or with Joseph Conrad in his Kew Palm-house mood. +And there is a book, I once looked into it at a man's room in London; I +don't know the title, but it was by Richard Garnett, and it was all +about gods who were in reduced circumstances but amidst sunny +picturesque scenery. Scenery without steel or poles or wire. A thing +after the manner of Heine's 'Florentine Nights.' Any book about Greek +gods would be welcome, anything about temples of ivory-coloured stone +and purple seas, red caps, chests of jewels, and lizards in the sun. I +wish there was another 'Thais.' The men here are getting a kind of +newspaper sheet of literature scraps called _The Times_ Broadsheets. +Snippets, but mostly from good stuff. They're small enough to stir the +appetite, but not to satisfy it. Rather an irritant--and one wants no +irritant.... I used to imagine reading was meant to be a stimulant. Out +here it has to be an anodyne.... + +"Have you heard of a book called 'Tom Cringle's Log'? + +"War is an exciting game--that I never wanted to play. It excites once +in a couple of months. And the rest of it is dirt and muddle and +boredom, and smashed houses and spoilt roads and muddy scenery and +boredom, and the lumbering along of supplies and the lumbering back of +the wounded and weary--and boredom, and continual vague guessing of how +it will end and boredom and boredom and boredom, and thinking of the +work you were going to do and the travel you were going to have, and the +waste of life and the waste of days and boredom, and splintered poplars +and stink, everywhere stink and dirt and boredom.... And all because +these accursed Prussians were too stupid to understand what a boredom +they were getting ready when they pranced and stuck their chests out and +earnt the praises of Mr. Thomas Carlyle.... _Gott strafe +Deutschland_.... So send me some books, books of dreams, books about +China and the willow-pattern plate and the golden age and fairyland. And +send them soon and address them very carefully...." + + +Section 12 + +Teddy's misadventure happened while figs were still ripening on Mr. +Britling's big tree. It was Cissie brought the news to Mr. Britling. She +came up to the Dower House with a white, scared face. + +"I've come up for the letters," she said. "There's bad news of Teddy, +and Letty's rather in a state." + +"He's not--?" Mr. Britling left the word unsaid. + +"He's wounded and missing," said Cissie. + +"A prisoner!" said Mr. Britling. + +"And wounded. _How_, we don't know." + +She added: "Letty has gone to telegraph." + +"Telegraph to whom?" + +"To the War Office, to know what sort of wound he has. They tell +nothing. It's disgraceful." + +"It doesn't say _severely_?" + +"It says just nothing. Wounded and missing! Surely they ought to give us +particulars." + +Mr. Britling thought. His first thought was that now news might come at +any time that Hugh was wounded and missing. Then he set himself to +persuade Cissie that the absence of "seriously" meant that Teddy was +only quite bearably wounded, and that if he was also "missing" it might +be difficult for the War Office to ascertain at once just exactly what +she wanted to know. But Cissie said merely that "Letty was in an awful +state," and after Mr. Britling had given her a few instructions for his +typing, he went down to the cottage to repeat these mitigatory +considerations to Letty. He found her much whiter than her sister, and +in a state of cold indignation with the War Office. It was clear she +thought that organisation ought to have taken better care of Teddy. She +had a curious effect of feeling that something was being kept back from +her. It was manifest too that she was disposed to regard Mr. Britling as +biased in favour of the authorities. + +"At any rate," she said, "they could have answered my telegram +promptly. I sent it at eight. Two hours of scornful silence." + +This fierce, strained, unjust Letty was a new aspect to Mr. Britling. +Her treatment of his proffered consolations made him feel slightly +henpecked. + +"And just fancy!" she said. "They have no means of knowing if he has +arrived safely on the German side. How can they know he is a prisoner +without knowing that?" + +"But the word is 'missing.'" + +"That _means_ a prisoner," said Letty uncivilly.... + + +Section 13 + +Mr. Britling returned to the Dower House perplexed and profoundly +disturbed. He had a distressful sense that things were far more serious +with Teddy than he had tried to persuade Letty they were; that "wounded +and missing" meant indeed a man abandoned to very sinister +probabilities. He was distressed for Teddy, and still more acutely +distressed for Mrs. Teddy, whose every note and gesture betrayed +suppositions even more sinister than his own. And that preposterous +sense of liability, because he had helped Teddy to get his commission, +was more distressful than it had ever been. He was surprised that Letty +had not assailed him with railing accusations. + +And this event had wiped off at one sweep all the protective scab of +habituation that had gathered over the wound of Hugh's departure. He was +back face to face with the one evil chance in five.... + +In the hall there was lying a letter from Hugh that had come by the +second post. It was a relief even to see it.... + +Hugh had had his first spell in the trenches. + +Before his departure he had promised his half brothers a long and +circumstantial account of what the trenches were really like. Here he +redeemed his promise. He had evidently written with the idea that the +letter would be handed over to them. + +"Tell the bruddykinses I'm glad they're going to Brinsmead school. Later +on, I suppose, they will go on to Statesminster. I suppose that you +don't care to send them so far in these troubled times.... + +"And now about those trenches--as I promised. The great thing to grasp +is that they are narrow. They are a sort of negative wall. They are more +like giant cracks in the ground than anything else.... But perhaps I had +better begin by telling how we got there. We started about one in the +morning ladened up with everything you can possibly imagine on a +soldier, and in addition I had a kettle--filled with water--most of the +chaps had bundles of firewood, and some had extra bread. We marched out +of our quarters along the road for a mile or more, and then we took the +fields, and presently came to a crest and dropped into a sort of maze of +zigzag trenches going up to the front trench. These trenches, you know, +are much deeper than one's height; you don't see anything. It's like +walking along a mud-walled passage. You just trudge along them in single +file. Every now and then some one stumbles into a soakaway for rainwater +or swears at a soft place, or somebody blunders into the man in front of +him. This seems to go on for hours and hours. It certainly went on for +an hour; so I suppose we did two or three miles of it. At one place we +crossed a dip in the ground and a ditch, and the trench was built up +with sandbags up to the ditch and there was a plank. Overhead there were +stars, and now and then a sort of blaze thing they send up lit up the +edges of the trench and gave one a glimpse of a treetop or a factory +roof far away. Then for a time it was more difficult to go on because +you were blinded. Suddenly just when you were believing that this sort +of trudge was going on forever, we were in the support trenches behind +the firing line, and found the men we were relieving ready to come +back. + +"And the firing line itself? Just the same sort of ditch with a parapet +of sandbags, but with dug-outs, queer big holes helped out with sleepers +from a nearby railway track, opening into it from behind. Dug-outs vary +a good deal. Many are rather like the cubby-house we made at the end of +the orchard last summer; only the walls are thick enough to stand a high +explosive shell. The best dug-out in our company's bit of front was +quite a dressy affair with some woodwork and a door got from the ruins +of a house twenty or thirty yards behind us. It had a stove in it too, +and a chimbley, and pans to keep water in. It was the best dug-out for +miles. This house had a well, and there was a special trench ran back to +that, and all day long there was a coming and going for water. There had +once been a pump over the well, but a shell had smashed that.... + +"And now you expect me to tell of Germans and the fight and shelling and +all sorts of things. _I haven't seen a live German_; I haven't been +within two hundred yards of a shell burst, there has been no attack and +I haven't got the V.C. I have made myself muddy beyond describing; I've +been working all the time, but I've not fired a shot or fought a +ha'porth. We were busy all the time--just at work, repairing the +parapet, which had to be done gingerly because of snipers, bringing our +food in from the rear in big carriers, getting water, pushing our trench +out from an angle slantingways forward. Getting meals, clearing up and +so on takes a lot of time. We make tea in big kettles in the big +dug-out, which two whole companies use for their cooking, and carry them +with a pole through the handles to our platoons. We wash up and wash and +shave. Dinner preparation (and consumption) takes two or three hours. +Tea too uses up time. It's like camping out and picnicking in the park. +This first time (and next too) we have been mixed with some Sussex men +who have been here longer and know the business.... It works out that we +do most of the fatigue. Afterwards we shall go up alone to a pitch of +our own.... + +"But all the time you want to know about the Germans. They are a quarter +of a mile away at this part, or nearly a quarter of a mile. When you +snatch a peep at them it is like a low parti-coloured stone wall--only +the stones are sandbags. The Germans have them black and white, so that +you cannot tell which are loopholes and which are black bags. Our people +haven't been so clever--and the War Office love of uniformity has given +us only white bags. No doubt it looks neater. But it makes our loopholes +plain. For a time black sandbags were refused. The Germans sniped at us, +but not very much. Only one of our lot was hit, by a chance shot that +came through the sandbag at the top of the parapet. He just had a cut in +the neck which didn't prevent his walking back. They shelled the +trenches half a mile to the left of us though, and it looked pretty hot. +The sandbags flew about. But the men lie low, and it looks worse than it +is. The weather was fine and pleasant, as General French always says. +And after three days and nights of cramped existence and petty chores, +one in the foremost trench and two a little way back, and then two days +in support, we came back--and here we are again waiting for our second +Go. + +"The night time is perhaps a little more nervy than the day. You get +your head up and look about, and see the flat dim country with its +ruined houses and its lumps of stuff that are dead bodies and its long +vague lines of sandbags, and the searchlights going like white windmill +arms and an occasional flare or star shell. And you have a nasty feeling +of people creeping and creeping all night between the trenches.... + +"Some of us went out to strengthen a place in the parapet that was only +one sandbag thick, where a man had been hit during the day. We made it +four bags thick right up to the top. All the while you were doing it, +you dreaded to find yourself in the white glare of a searchlight, and +you had a feeling that something would hit you suddenly from behind. I +had to make up my mind not to look round, or I should have kept on +looking round.... Also our chaps kept shooting over us, within a foot of +one's head. Just to persuade the Germans that we were not out of the +trench.... + +"Nothing happened to us. We got back all right. It was silly to have +left that parapet only one bag thick. There's the truth, and all of my +first time in the trenches. + +"And the Germans? + +"I tell you there was no actual fighting at all. I never saw the head of +one. + +"But now see what a good bruddykins I am. I have seen a fight, a real +exciting fight, and I have kept it to the last to tell you about.... It +was a fight in the air. And the British won. It began with a German +machine appearing, very minute and high, sailing towards our lines a +long way to the left. We could tell it was a German because of the black +cross; they decorate every aeroplane with a black Iron Cross on its +wings and tail; that our officer could see with his glasses. (He let me +look.) Suddenly whack, whack, whack, came a line of little puffs of +smoke behind it, and then one in front of it, which meant that our +anti-aircraft guns were having a go at it. Then, as suddenly, Archibald +stopped, and we could see the British machine buzzing across the path of +the German. It was just like two birds circling in the air. Or wasps. +They buzzed like wasps. There was a little crackling--like brushing your +hair in frosty weather. They were shooting at each other. Then our +lieutenant called out, 'Hit, by Jove!' and handed the glasses to Park +and instantly wanted them back. He says he saw bits of the machine +flying off. + +"When he said that you could fancy you saw it too, up there in the blue. + +"Anyhow the little machine cocked itself up on end. Rather slowly.... +Then down it came like dropping a knife.... + +"It made you say 'Ooooo!' to see that dive. It came down, seemed to get +a little bit under control, and then dive down again. You could hear the +engine roar louder and louder as it came down. I never saw anything fall +so fast. We saw it hit the ground among a lot of smashed-up buildings on +the crest behind us. It went right over and flew to pieces, all to +smithereens.... + +"It hurt your nose to see it hit the ground.... + +"Somehow--I was sort of overcome by the thought of the men in that dive. +I was trying to imagine how they felt it. From the moment when they +realised they were going. + +"What on earth must it have seemed like at last? + +"They fell seven thousand feet, the men say; some say nine thousand +feet. A mile and a half! + +"But all the chaps were cheering.... And there was our machine hanging +in the sky. You wanted to reach up and pat it on the back. It went up +higher and away towards the German lines, as though it was looking for +another German. It seemed to go now quite slowly. It was an English +machine, though for a time we weren't sure; our machines are done in +tri-colour just as though they were French. But everybody says it was +English. It was one of our crack fighting machines, and from first to +last it has put down seven Germans.... And that's really all the +fighting there was. There has been fighting here; a month ago. There are +perhaps a dozen dead Germans lying out still in front of the lines. +Little twisted figures, like overthrown scarecrows, about a hundred +yards away. But that is all. + +"No, the trenches have disappointed me. They are a scene of tiresome +domesticity. They aren't a patch on our quarters in the rear. There +isn't the traffic. I've not found a single excuse for firing my rifle. I +don't believe I shall ever fire my rifle at an enemy--ever.... + +"You've seen Rendezvous' fresh promotion, I suppose? He's one of the men +the young officers talk about. Everybody believes in him. Do you +remember how Manning used to hide from him?..." + + +Section 14 + +Mr. Britling read this through, and then his thoughts went back to +Teddy's disappearance and then returned to Hugh. The youngster was right +in the front now, and one had to steel oneself to the possibilities of +the case. Somehow Mr. Britling had not expected to find Hugh so speedily +in the firing line, though he would have been puzzled to find a reason +why this should not have happened. But he found he had to begin the +lesson of stoicism all over again. + +He read the letter twice, and then he searched for some indication of +its date. He suspected that letters were sometimes held back.... + +Four days later this suspicion was confirmed by the arrival of another +letter from Hugh in which he told of his second spell in the trenches. +This time things had been much more lively. They had been heavily +shelled and there had been a German attack. And this time he was writing +to his father, and wrote more freely. He had scribbled in pencil. + +"Things are much livelier here than they were. Our guns are getting to +work. They are firing in spells of an hour or so, three or four times a +day, and just when they seem to be leaving off they begin again. The +Germans suddenly got the range of our trenches the day before yesterday, +and begun to pound us with high explosive.... Well, it's trying. You +never seem quite to know when the next bang is coming, and that keeps +your nerves hung up; it seems to tighten your muscles and tire you. +We've done nothing but lie low all day, and I feel as weary as if I had +marched twenty miles. Then 'whop,' one's near you, and there is a flash +and everything flies. It's a mad sort of smash-about. One came much too +close to be pleasant; as near as the old oil jars are from the barn +court door. It bowled me clean over and sent a lot of gravel over me. +When I got up there was twenty yards of trench smashed into a mere hole, +and men lying about, and some of them groaning and one three-quarters +buried. We had to turn to and get them out as well as we could.... + +"I felt stunned and insensitive; it was well to have something to do.... + +"Our guns behind felt for the German guns. It was the damnest racket. +Like giant lunatics smashing about amidst colossal pots and pans. They +fired different sorts of shells; stink shells as well as Jack Johnsons, +and though we didn't get much of that at our corner there was a sting of +chlorine in the air all through the afternoon. Most of the stink shells +fell short. We hadn't masks, but we rigged up a sort of protection with +our handkerchiefs. And it didn't amount to very much. It was rather like +the chemistry room after Heinrich and the kids had been mixing things. +Most of the time I was busy helping with the men who had got hurt. +Suddenly there came a lull. Then some one said the Germans were coming, +and I had a glimpse of them. + +"You don't look at anything steadily while the guns are going. When a +big gun goes off or a shell bursts anywhere near you, you seem neither +to see nor hear for a moment. You keep on being intermittently stunned. +One sees in a kind of flicker in between the impacts.... + +"Well, there they were. This time I saw them. They were coming out and +running a little way and dropping, and our shell was bursting among them +and behind them. A lot of it was going too far. I watched what our men +were doing, and poured out a lot of cartridges ready to my hand and +began to blaze away. Half the German attack never came out of their +trench. If they really intended business against us, which I doubt, they +were half-hearted in carrying it out. They didn't show for five +minutes, and they left two or three score men on the ground. Whenever we +saw a man wriggle we were told to fire at him; it might be an unwounded +man trying to crawl back. For a time our guns gave them beans. Then it +was practically over, but about sunset their guns got back at us again, +and the artillery fight went on until it was moonlight. The chaps in our +third company caught it rather badly, and then our guns seemed to find +something and get the upper hand.... + +"In the night some of our men went out to repair the wire entanglements, +and one man crawled halfway to the enemy trenches to listen. But I had +done my bit for the day, and I was supposed to sleep in the dug-out. I +was far too excited to sleep. All my nerves were jumping about, and my +mind was like a lot of flying fragments flying about very fast.... + +"They shelled us again next day and our tea dixy was hit; so that we +didn't get any tea.... + +"I slept thirty hours after I got back here. And now I am slowly +digesting these experiences. Most of our fellows are. My mind and nerves +have been rather bumped and bruised by the shelling, but not so much as +you might think. I feel as though I'd presently not think very much of +it. Some of our men have got the stun of it a lot more than I have. It +gets at the older men more. Everybody says that. The men of over +thirty-five don't recover from a shelling for weeks. They go about--sort +of hesitatingly.... + +"Life is very primitive here--which doesn't mean that one is getting +down to anything fundamental, but only going back to something immediate +and simple. It's fetching and carrying and getting water and getting +food and going up to the firing line and coming back. One goes on for +weeks, and then one day one finds oneself crying out, 'What is all this +for? When is it to end?' I seemed to have something ahead of me before +this war began, education, science, work, discoveries; all sorts of +things; but it is hard to feel that there is anything ahead of us +here.... + +"Somehow the last spell in the fire trench has shaken up my mind a lot. +I was getting used to the war before, but now I've got back to my +original amazement at the whole business. I find myself wondering what +we are really up to, why the war began, why we were caught into this +amazing routine. It looks, it feels orderly, methodical, purposeful. Our +officers give us orders and get their orders, and the men back there get +their orders. Everybody is getting orders. Back, I suppose, to Lord +Kitchener. It goes on for weeks with the effect of being quite sane and +intended and the right thing, and then, then suddenly it comes whacking +into one's head, 'But this--this is utterly _mad_!' This going to and +fro and to and fro and to and fro; this monotony which breaks ever and +again into violence--violence that never gets anywhere--is exactly the +life that a lunatic leads. Melancholia and mania.... It's just a +collective obsession--by war. The world is really quite mad. I happen to +be having just one gleam of sanity, that won't last after I have +finished this letter. I suppose when an individual man goes mad and gets +out of the window because he imagines the door is magically impossible, +and dances about in the street without his trousers jabbing at +passers-by with a toasting-fork, he has just the same sombre sense of +unavoidable necessity that we have, all of us, when we go off with our +packs into the trenches.... + +"It's only by an effort that I can recall how life felt in the spring of +1914. Do you remember Heinrich and his attempt to make a table chart of +the roses, so that we could sit outside the barn and read the names of +all the roses in the barn court? Like the mountain charts they have on +tables in Switzerland. What an inconceivable thing that is now! For all +I know I shot Heinrich the other night. For all I know he is one of the +lumps that we counted after the attack went back. + +"It's a queer thing, Daddy, but I have a sort of _seditious_ feeling in +writing things like this. One gets to feel that it is wrong to think. +It's the effect of discipline. Of being part of a machine. Still, I +doubt if I ought to think. If one really looks into things in this +spirit, where is it going to take us? Ortheris--his real name by the by +is Arthur Jewell--hasn't any of these troubles. 'The b----y Germans +butted into Belgium,' he says. 'We've got to 'oof 'em out again. That's +all abart it. Leastways it's all _I_ know.... I don't know nothing about +Serbia, I don't know nothing about anything, except that the Germans got +to stop this sort of gime for Everlasting, Amen.'... + +"Sometimes I think he's righter than I am. Sometimes I think he is only +madder." + + +Section 15 + +These letters weighed heavily upon Mr. Britling's mind. He perceived +that this precociously wise, subtle youngster of his was now close up to +the line of injury and death, going to and fro from it, in a perpetual, +fluctuating danger. At any time now in the day or night the evil thing +might wing its way to him. If Mr. Britling could have prayed, he would +have prayed for Hugh. He began and never finished some ineffectual +prayers. + +He tried to persuade himself of a Roman stoicism; that he would be +sternly proud, sternly satisfied, if this last sacrifice for his country +was demanded from him. He perceived he was merely humbugging himself.... + +This war had no longer the simple greatness that would make any such +stern happiness possible.... + +The disaster to Teddy and Mrs. Teddy hit him hard. He winced at the +thought of Mrs. Teddy's white face; the unspoken accusation in her eyes. +He felt he could never bring himself to say his one excuse to her: "I +did not keep Hugh back. If I had done that, then you might have the +right to blame." + +If he had overcome every other difficulty in the way to an heroic pose +there was still Hugh's unconquerable lucidity of outlook. War _was_ a +madness.... + +But what else was to be done? What else could be done? We could not give +in to Germany. If a lunatic struggles, sane men must struggle too.... + +Mr. Britling had ceased to write about the war at all. All his later +writings about it had been abandoned unfinished. He could not imagine +them counting, affecting any one, producing any effect. Indeed he was +writing now very intermittently. His contributions to _The Times_ had +fallen away. He was perpetually thinking now about the war, about life +and death, about the religious problems that had seemed so remote in the +days of the peace; but none of his thinking would become clear and +definite enough for writing. All the clear stars of his mind were hidden +by the stormy clouds of excitement that the daily newspaper perpetually +renewed and by the daily developments of life. And just as his +professional income shrank before his mental confusion and impotence, +the private income that came from his and his wife's investments became +uncertain. She had had two thousand pounds in the Constantinople loan, +seven hundred in debentures of the Ottoman railway; he had held similar +sums in two Hungarian and one Bulgarian loan, in a linoleum factory at +Rouen and in a Swiss Hotel company. All these stopped payments, and the +dividends from their other investments shrank. There seemed no limit set +to the possibilities of shrinkage of capital and income. Income tax had +leapt to colossal dimensions, the cost of most things had risen, and the +tangle of life was now increased by the need for retrenchments and +economies. He decided that Gladys, the facetiously named automobile, was +a luxury, and sold her for a couple of hundred pounds. He lost his +gardener, who had gone to higher priced work with a miller, and he had +great trouble to replace him, so that the garden became disagreeably +unkempt and unsatisfactory. He had to give up his frequent trips to +London. He was obliged to defer Statesminster for the boys. For a time +at any rate they must go as day boys to Brinsmead. At every point he met +this uncongenial consideration of ways and means. For years now he had +gone easy, lived with a certain self-indulgence. It was extraordinarily +vexatious to have one's greater troubles for one's country and one's son +and one's faith crossed and complicated by these little troubles of the +extra sixpence and the untimely bill. + +What worried his mind perhaps more than anything else was his gradual +loss of touch with the essential issues of the war. At first the +militarism, the aggression of Germany, had seemed so bad that he could +not see the action of Britain and her allies as anything but entirely +righteous. He had seen the war plainly and simply in the phrase, "Now +this militarism must end." He had seen Germany as a system, as +imperialism and junkerism, as a callous materialist aggression, as the +spirit that makes war, and the Allies as the protest of humanity against +all these evil things. + +Insensibly, in spite of himself, this first version of the war was +giving place to another. The tawdry, rhetorical German Emperor, who had +been the great antagonist at the outset, the last upholder of Caesarism, +God's anointed with the withered arm and the mailed fist, had receded +from the foreground of the picture; that truer Germany which is thought +and system, which is the will to do things thoroughly, the Germany of +Ostwald and the once rejected Hindenburg, was coming to the fore. It +made no apology for the errors and crimes that had been imposed upon it +by its Hohenzollern leadership, but it fought now to save itself from +the destruction and division that would be its inevitable lot if it +accepted defeat too easily; fought to hold out, fought for a second +chance, with discipline, with skill and patience, with a steadfast +will. It fought with science, it fought with economy, with machines and +thought against all too human antagonists. It necessitated an implacable +resistance, but also it commanded respect. Against it fought three great +peoples with as fine a will; but they had neither the unity, the +habitual discipline, nor the science of Germany, and it was the latter +defect that became more and more the distressful matter of Mr. +Britling's thoughts. France after her initial experiences, after her +first reeling month, had risen from the very verge of defeat to a steely +splendour of resolution, but England and Russia, those twin slack +giants, still wasted force, were careless, negligent, uncertain. +Everywhere up and down the scale, from the stupidity of the uniform +sandbags and Hugh's young officer who would not use a map, to the +general conception and direction of the war, Mr. Britling's inflamed and +oversensitised intelligence perceived the same bad qualities for which +he had so often railed upon his countrymen in the days of the peace, +that impatience, that indolence, that wastefulness and inconclusiveness, +that failure to grip issues and do obviously necessary things. The same +lax qualities that had brought England so close to the supreme +imbecility of a civil war in Ireland in July, 1914, were now muddling +and prolonging the war, and postponing, it might be for ever, the +victory that had seemed so certain only a year ago. The politician still +intrigued, the ineffectives still directed. Against brains used to the +utmost their fight was a stupid thrusting forth of men and men and yet +more men, men badly trained, under-equipped, stupidly led. A press +clamour for invention and scientific initiative was stifled under a +committee of elderly celebrities and eminent dufferdom; from the outset, +the Ministry of Munitions seemed under the influence of the "business +man."... + +It is true that righteousness should triumph over the tyrant and the +robber, but have carelessness and incapacity any right to triumph over +capacity and foresight? Men were coming now to dark questionings +between this intricate choice. And, indeed, was our cause all +righteousness? + +There surely is the worst doubt of all for a man whose son is facing +death. + +Were we indeed standing against tyranny for freedom? + +There came drifting to Mr. Britling's ears a confusion of voices, voices +that told of reaction, of the schemes of employers to best the trade +unions, of greedy shippers and greedy house landlords reaping their +harvest, of waste and treason in the very households of the Ministry, of +religious cant and intolerance at large, of self-advertisement written +in letters of blood, of forestalling and jobbery, of irrational and +exasperating oppressions in India and Egypt.... It came with a shock to +him, too, that Hugh should see so little else than madness in the war, +and have so pitiless a realisation of its essential futility. The boy +forced his father to see--what indeed all along he had been seeing more +and more clearly. The war, even by the standards of adventure and +conquest, had long since become a monstrous absurdity. Some way there +must be out of this bloody entanglement that was yielding victory to +neither side, that was yielding nothing but waste and death beyond all +precedent. The vast majority of people everywhere must be desiring +peace, willing to buy peace at any reasonable price, and in all the +world it seemed there was insufficient capacity to end the daily +butchery and achieve the peace that was so universally desired, the +peace that would be anything better than a breathing space for further +warfare.... Every day came the papers with the balanced story of +battles, losses, destructions, ships sunk, towns smashed. And never a +decision, never a sign of decision. + +One Saturday afternoon Mr. Britling found himself with Mrs. Britling at +Claverings. Lady Homartyn was in mourning for her two nephews, the +Glassington boys, who had both been killed, one in Flanders, the other +in Gallipoli. Raeburn was there too, despondent and tired-looking. +There were three young men in khaki, one with the red of a staff +officer; there were two or three women whom Mr. Britling had not met +before, and Miss Sharsper the novelist, fresh from nursing experience +among the convalescents in the south of France. But he was disgusted to +find that the gathering was dominated by his old antagonist, Lady +Frensham, unsubdued, unaltered, rampant over them all, arrogant, +impudent, insulting. She was in mourning, she had the most splendid +black furs Mr. Britling had ever seen; her large triumphant profile came +out of them like the head of a vulture out of its ruff; her elder +brother was a wounded prisoner in Germany, her second was dead; it would +seem that hers were the only sacrifices the war had yet extorted from +any one. She spoke as though it gave her the sole right to criticise the +war or claim compensation for the war. + +Her incurable propensity to split the country, to make mischievous +accusations against classes and districts and public servants, was +having full play. She did her best to provoke Mr. Britling into a +dispute, and throw some sort of imputation upon his patriotism as +distinguished from her own noisy and intolerant conceptions of +"loyalty." + +She tried him first with conscription. She threw out insults at the +shirkers and the "funk classes." All the middle-class people clung on to +their wretched little businesses, made any sort of excuse.... + +Mr. Britling was stung to defend them. "A business," he said acidly, +"isn't like land, which waits and grows rich for its owner. And these +people can't leave ferrety little agents behind them when they go off to +serve. Tens of thousands of middle-class men have ruined themselves and +flung away every prospect they had in the world to go to this war." + +"And scores of thousands haven't!" said Lady Frensham. "They are the men +I'm thinking of."... + +Mr. Britling ran through a little list of aristocratic stay-at-homes +that began with a duke. + +"And not a soul speaks to them in consequence," she said. + +She shifted her attack to the Labour people. They would rather see the +country defeated than submit to a little discipline. + +"Because they have no faith in the house of lawyers or the house of +landlords," said Mr. Britling. "Who can blame them?" + +She proceeded to tell everybody what she would do with strikers. She +would give them "short shrift." She would give them a taste of the +Prussian way--homoeopathic treatment. "But of course old vote-catching +Asquith daren't--he daren't!" Mr. Britling opened his mouth and said +nothing; he was silenced. The men in khaki listened respectfully but +ambiguously; one of the younger ladies it seemed was entirely of Lady +Frensham's way of thinking, and anxious to show it. The good lady having +now got her hands upon the Cabinet proceeded to deal faithfully with its +two-and-twenty members. Winston Churchill had overridden Lord Fisher +upon the question of Gallipoli, and incurred terrible responsibilities. +Lord Haldane--she called him "Tubby Haldane"--was a convicted traitor. +"The man's a German out and out. Oh! what if he hasn't a drop of German +blood in his veins? He's a German by choice--which is worse." + +"I thought he had a certain capacity for organisation," said Mr. +Britling. + +"We don't want his organisation, and we don't want _him_," said Lady +Frensham. + +Mr. Britling pleaded for particulars of the late Lord Chancellor's +treasons. There were no particulars. It was just an idea the good lady +had got into her head, that had got into a number of accessible heads. +There was only one strong man in all the country now, Lady Frensham +insisted. That was Sir Edward Carson. + +Mr. Britling jumped in his chair. + +"But has he ever done anything?" he cried, "except embitter Ireland?" + +Lady Frensham did not hear that question. She pursued her glorious +theme. Lloyd George, who had once been worthy only of the gallows, was +now the sole minister fit to put beside her hero. He had won her heart +by his condemnation of the working man. He was the one man who was not +afraid to speak out, to tell them they drank, to tell them they shirked +and loafed, to tell them plainly that if defeat came to this country the +blame would fall upon _them_! + +"_No!_" cried Mr. Britling. + +"Yes," said Lady Frensham. "Upon them and those who have flattered and +misled them...." + +And so on.... + +It presently became necessary for Lady Homartyn to rescue Mr. Britling +from the great lady's patriotic tramplings. He found himself drifting +into the autumnal garden--the show of dahlias had never been so +wonderful--in the company of Raeburn and the staff officer and a small +woman who was presently discovered to be remarkably well-informed. They +were all despondent. "I think all this promiscuous blaming of people is +quite the worst--and most ominous--thing about us just now," said Mr. +Britling after the restful pause that followed the departure from the +presence of Lady Frensham. + +"It goes on everywhere," said the staff officer. + +"Is it really--honest?" said Mr. Britling. + +Raeburn, after reflection, decided to answer. "As far as it is stupid, +yes. There's a lot of blame coming; there's bound to be a day of +reckoning, and I suppose we've all got an instinctive disposition to +find a scapegoat for our common sins. The Tory press is pretty rotten, +and there's a strong element of mere personal spite--in the Churchill +attacks for example. Personal jealousy probably. Our 'old families' +seem to have got vulgar-spirited imperceptibly--in a generation or so. +They quarrel and shirk and lay blame exactly as bad servants do--and +things are still far too much in their hands. Things are getting muffed, +there can be no doubt about that--not fatally, but still rather +seriously. And the government--it was human before the war, and we've +added no archangels. There's muddle. There's mutual suspicion. You never +know what newspaper office Lloyd George won't be in touch with next. +He's honest and patriotic and energetic, but he's mortally afraid of old +women and class intrigues. He doesn't know where to get his backing. +He's got all a labour member's terror of the dagger at his back. There's +a lack of nerve, too, in getting rid of prominent officers--who have +friends." + +The staff officer nodded. + +"Northcliffe seems to me to have a case," said Mr. Britling. "Every one +abuses him." + +"I'd stop his _Daily Mail_," said Raeburn. "I'd leave _The Times_, but +I'd stop the _Daily Mail_ on the score of its placards alone. It +overdoes Northcliffe. It translates him into the shrieks and yells of +underlings. The plain fact is that Northcliffe is scared out of his wits +by German efficiency--and in war time when a man is scared out of his +wits, whether he is honest or not, you put his head in a bag or hold a +pistol to it to calm him.... What is the good of all this clamouring for +a change of government? We haven't a change of government. It's like +telling a tramp to get a change of linen. Our men, all our public men, +are second-rate men, with the habits of advocates. There is nothing +masterful in their minds. How can you expect the system to produce +anything else? But they are doing as well as they can, and there is no +way of putting in any one else now, and there you are." + +"Meanwhile," said Mr. Britling, "our boys--get killed." + +"They'd get killed all the more if you had--let us say--Carson and +Lloyd George and Northcliffe and Lady Frensham, with, I suppose, Austin +Harrison and Horatio Bottomley thrown in--as a Strong Silent +Government.... I'd rather have Northcliffe as dictator than that.... We +can't suddenly go back on the past and alter our type. We didn't listen +to Matthew Arnold. We've never thoroughly turned out and cleaned up our +higher schools. We've resisted instruction. We've preferred to maintain +our national luxuries of a bench of bishops and party politics. And +compulsory Greek and the university sneer. And Lady Frensham. And all +that sort of thing. And here we are!... Well, damn it, we're in for it +now; we've got to plough through with it--with what we have--as what we +are." + +The young staff officer nodded. He thought that was "about it." + +"You've got no sons," said Mr. Britling. + +"I'm not even married," said Raeburn, as though he thanked God. + +The little well-informed lady remarked abruptly that she had two sons; +one was just home wounded from Suvla Bay. What her son told her made her +feel very grave. She said that the public was still quite in the dark +about the battle of Anafarta. It had been a hideous muddle, and we had +been badly beaten. The staff work had been awful. Nothing joined up, +nothing was on the spot and in time. The water supply, for example, had +gone wrong; the men had been mad with thirst. One regiment which she +named had not been supported by another; when at last the first came +back the two battalions fought in the trenches regardless of the enemy. +There had been no leading, no correlation, no plan. Some of the guns, +she declared, had been left behind in Egypt. Some of the train was +untraceable to this day. It was mislaid somewhere in the Levant. At the +beginning Sir Ian Hamilton had not even been present. He had failed to +get there in time. It had been the reckless throwing away of an army. +And so hopeful an army! Her son declared it meant the complete failure +of the Dardanelles project.... + +"And when one hears how near we came to victory!" she cried, and left it +at that. + +"Three times this year," said Raeburn, "we have missed victories because +of the badness of our staff work. It's no good picking out scapegoats. +It's a question of national habit. It's because the sort of man we turn +out from our public schools has never learnt how to catch trains, get to +an office on the minute, pack a knapsack properly, or do anything +smartly and quickly--anything whatever that he can possibly get done for +him. You can't expect men who are habitually easy-going to keep bucked +up to a high pitch of efficiency for any length of time. All their +training is against it. All their tradition. They hate being prigs. An +Englishman will be any sort of stupid failure rather than appear a prig. +That's why we've lost three good fights that we ought to have won--and +thousands and thousands of men--and material and time, precious beyond +reckoning. We've lost a year. We've dashed the spirit of our people." + +"My boy in Flanders," said Mr. Britling, "says about the same thing. He +says our officers have never learnt to count beyond ten, and that they +are scared at the sight of a map...." + +"And the war goes on," said the little woman. + +"How long, oh Lord! how long?" cried Mr. Britling. + +"I'd give them another year," said the staff officer. "Just going as we +are going. Then something _must_ give way. There will be no money +anywhere. There'll be no more men.... I suppose they'll feel that +shortage first anyhow. Russia alone has over twenty millions." + +"That's about the size of it," said Raeburn.... + +"Do you think, sir, there'll be civil war?" asked the young staff +officer abruptly after a pause. + +There was a little interval before any one answered this surprising +question. + +"After the peace, I mean," said the young officer. + +"There'll be just the devil to pay," said Raeburn. + +"One thing after another in the country is being pulled up by its +roots," reflected Mr. Britling. + +"We've never produced a plan for the war, and it isn't likely we shall +have one for the peace," said Raeburn, and added: "and Lady Frensham's +little lot will be doing their level best to sit on the safety-valve.... +They'll rake up Ireland and Ulster from the very start. But I doubt if +Ulster will save 'em." + +"We shall squabble. What else do we ever do?" + +No one seemed able to see more than that. A silence fell on the little +party. + +"Well, thank heaven for these dahlias," said Raeburn, affecting the +philosopher. + +The young staff officer regarded the dahlias without enthusiasm.... + + +Section 16 + +Mr. Britling sat one September afternoon with Captain Lawrence Carmine +in the sunshine of the barn court, and smoked with him and sometimes +talked and sometimes sat still. + +"When it began I did not believe that this war could be like other +wars," he said. "I did not dream it. I thought that we had grown wiser +at last. It seemed to me like the dawn of a great clearing up. I thought +the common sense of mankind would break out like a flame, an indignant +flame, and consume all this obsolete foolery of empires and banners and +militarism directly it made its attack upon human happiness. A score of +things that I see now were preposterous, I thought must +happen--naturally. I thought America would declare herself against the +Belgian outrage; that she would not tolerate the smashing of the great +sister republic--if only for the memory of Lafayette. Well--I gather +America is chiefly concerned about our making cotton contraband. I +thought the Balkan States were capable of a reasonable give and take; of +a common care for their common freedom. I see now three German royalties +trading in peasants, and no men in their lands to gainsay them. I saw +this war, as so many Frenchmen have seen it, as something that might +legitimately command a splendid enthusiasm of indignation.... It was all +a dream, the dream of a prosperous comfortable man who had never come to +the cutting edge of life. Everywhere cunning, everywhere small feuds and +hatreds, distrusts, dishonesties, timidities, feebleness of purpose, +dwarfish imaginations, swarm over the great and simple issues.... It is +a war now like any other of the mobbing, many-aimed cataclysms that have +shattered empires and devastated the world; it is a war without point, a +war that has lost its soul, it has become mere incoherent fighting and +destruction, a demonstration in vast and tragic forms of the stupidity +and ineffectiveness of our species...." + +He stopped, and there was a little interval of silence. + +Captain Carmine tossed the fag end of his cigar very neatly into a tub +of hydrangeas. "Three thousand years ago in China," he said, "there were +men as sad as we are, for the same cause." + +"Three thousand years ahead perhaps," said Mr. Britling, "there will +still be men with the same sadness.... And yet--and yet.... No. Just now +I have no elasticity. It is not in my nature to despair, but things are +pressing me down. I don't recover as I used to recover. I tell myself +still that though the way is long and hard the spirit of hope, the +spirit of creation, the generosities and gallantries in the heart of +man, must end in victory. But I say that over as one repeats a worn-out +prayer. The light is out of the sky for me. Sometimes I doubt if it will +ever come back. Let younger men take heart and go on with the world. If +I could die for the right thing now--instead of just having to live on +in this world of ineffective struggle--I would be glad to die now, +Carmine...." + + +Section 17 + +In these days also Mr. Direck was very unhappy. + +For Cissie, at any rate, had not lost touch with the essential issues of +the war. She was as clear as ever that German militarism and the German +attack on Belgium and France was the primary subject of the war. And she +dismissed all secondary issues. She continued to demand why America did +not fight. "We fight for Belgium. Won't you fight for the Dutch and +Norwegian ships? Won't you even fight for your own ships that the +Germans are sinking?" + +Mr. Direck attempted explanations that were ill received. + +"You were ready enough to fight the Spaniards when they blew up the +_Maine_. But the Germans can sink the _Lusitania_! That's--as you say--a +different proposition." + +His mind was shot by an extraordinary suspicion that she thought the +_Lusitania_ an American vessel. But Mr. Direck was learning his Cissie, +and he did not dare to challenge her on this score. + +"You haven't got hold of the American proposition," he said. "We're +thinking beyond wars." + +"That's what we have been trying to do," said Cissie. "Do you think we +came into it for the fun of the thing?" + +"Haven't I shown in a hundred ways that I sympathise?" + +"Oh--sympathy!..." + +He fared little better at Mr. Britling's hands. Mr. Britling talked +darkly, but pointed all the time only too plainly at America. "There's +two sorts of liberalism," said Mr. Britling, "that pretend to be the +same thing; there's the liberalism of great aims and the liberalism of +defective moral energy...." + + +Section 18 + +It was not until Teddy had been missing for three weeks that Hugh wrote +about him. The two Essex battalions on the Flanders front were +apparently wide apart, and it was only from home that Hugh learnt what +had happened. + +"You can't imagine how things narrow down when one is close up against +them. One does not know what is happening even within a few miles of us, +until we get the newspapers. Then, with a little reading between the +lines and some bold guessing, we fit our little bit of experience with a +general shape. Of course I've wondered at times about Teddy. But oddly +enough I've never thought of him very much as being out here. It's +queer, I know, but I haven't. I can't imagine why.... + +"I don't know about 'missing.' We've had nothing going on here that has +led to any missing. All our men have been accounted for. But every few +miles along the front conditions alter. His lot may have been closer up +to the enemy, and there may have been a rush and a fight for a bit of +trench either way. In some parts the German trenches are not thirty +yards away, and there is mining, bomb throwing, and perpetual creeping +up and give and take. Here we've been getting a bit forward. But I'll +tell you about that presently. And, anyhow, I don't understand about +'missing.' There's very few prisoners taken now. But don't tell Letty +that. I try to imagine old Teddy in it.... + +"Missing's a queer thing. It isn't tragic--or pitiful. Or partly +reassuring like 'prisoner.' It just sends one speculating and +speculating. I can't find any one who knows where the 14th Essex are. +Things move about here so mysteriously that for all I know we may find +them in the next trench next time we go up. But there _is_ a chance for +Teddy. It's worth while bucking Letty all you can. And at the same time +there's odds against him. There plainly and unfeelingly is how things +stand in my mind. I think chiefly of Letty. I'm glad Cissie is with her, +and I'm glad she's got the boy. Keep her busy. She was frightfully fond +of him. I've seen all sorts of things between them, and I know that.... +I'll try and write to her soon, and I'll find something hopeful to tell +her. + +"Meanwhile I've got something to tell you. I've been through a fight, a +big fight, and I haven't got a scratch. I've taken two prisoners with my +lily hand. Men were shot close to me. I didn't mind that a bit. It was +as exciting as one of those bitter fights we used to have round the +hockey goal. I didn't mind anything till afterwards. Then when I was in +the trench in the evening I trod on something slippery--pah! And after +it was all over one of my chums got it--sort of unfairly. And I keep on +thinking of those two things so much that all the early part is just +dreamlike. It's more like something I've read in a book, or seen in the +_Illustrated London News_ than actually been through. One had been +thinking so often, how will it feel? how shall I behave? that when it +came it had an effect of being flat and ordinary. + +"They say we hadn't got enough guns in the spring or enough ammunition. +That's all right now--anyhow. They started in plastering the Germans +overnight, and right on until it was just daylight. I never heard such a +row, and their trenches--we could stand up and look at them without +getting a single shot at us--were flying about like the crater of a +volcano. We were not in our firing trench. We had gone back into some +new trenches, at the rear--I think to get out of the way of the counter +fire. But this morning they weren't doing very much. For once our guns +were on top. There was a feeling of anticipation--very like waiting for +an examination paper to be given out; then we were at it. Getting out of +a trench to attack gives you an odd feeling of being just hatched. +Suddenly the world is big. I don't remember our gun fire stopping. And +then you rush. 'Come on! Come on!' say the officers. Everybody gives a +sort of howl and rushes. When you see men dropping, you rush the faster. +The only thing that checks you at all is the wire twisted about +everywhere. You don't want to trip over that. The frightening thing is +the exposure. After being in the trenches so long you feel naked. You +run like a scared child for the German trench ahead. I can't understand +the iron nerve of a man who can expose his back by turning to run away. +And there's a thirsty feeling with one's bayonet. But they didn't wait. +They dropped rifles and ran. But we ran so fast after them that we +caught one or two in the second trench. I got down into that, heard a +voice behind me, and found my two prisoners lying artful in a dug-out. +They held up their hands as I turned. If they hadn't I doubt if I should +have done anything to them. I didn't feel like it. I felt _friendly_. + +"Not all the Germans ran. Three or four stuck to their machine-guns +until they got bayoneted. Both the trenches were frightfully smashed +about, and in the first one there were little knots and groups of dead. +We got to work at once shying the sandbags over from the old front of +the trench to the parados. Our guns had never stopped all the time; they +were now plastering the third line trenches. And almost at once the +German shells began dropping into us. Of course they had the range to an +inch. One didn't have any time to feel and think; one just set oneself +with all one's energy to turn the trench over.... + +"I don't remember that I helped or cared for a wounded man all the time, +or felt anything about the dead except to step over them and not on +them. I was just possessed by the idea that we had to get the trench +into a sheltering state before they tried to come back. And then stick +there. I just wanted to win, and there was nothing else in my mind.... + +"They did try to come back, but not very much.... + +"Then when I began to feel sure of having got hold of the trench for +good, I began to realise just how tired I was and how high the sun had +got. I began to look about me, and found most of the other men working +just as hard as I had been doing. 'We've done it!' I said, and that was +the first word I'd spoken since I told my two Germans to come out of it, +and stuck a man with a wounded leg to watch them. 'It's a bit of All +Right,' said Ortheris, knocking off also, and lighting a half-consumed +cigarette. He had been wearing it behind his ear, I believe, ever since +the charge. Against this occasion. He'd kept close up to me all the +time, I realised. And then old Park turned up very cheerful with a weak +bayonet jab in his forearm that he wanted me to rebandage. It was good +to see him practically all right too. + +"'I took two prisoners,' I said, and everybody I spoke to I told that. I +was fearfully proud of it. + +"I thought that if I could take two prisoners in my first charge I was +going to be some soldier. + +"I had stood it all admirably. I didn't feel a bit shaken. I was as +tough as anything. I'd seen death and killing, and it was all just +hockey. + +"And then that confounded Ortheris must needs go and get killed. + +"The shell knocked me over, and didn't hurt me a bit. I was a little +stunned, and some dirt was thrown over me, and when I got up on my knees +I saw Jewell lying about six yards off--and his legs were all smashed +about. Ugh! Pulped! + +"He looked amazed. 'Bloody,' he said, 'bloody.' He fixed his eyes on me, +and suddenly grinned. You know we'd once had two fights about his saying +'bloody,' I think I told you at the time, a fight and a return match, +he couldn't box for nuts, but he stood up like a Briton, and it appealed +now to his sense of humour that I should be standing there too dazed to +protest at the old offence. 'I thought _you_ was done in,' he said. 'I'm +in a mess--a bloody mess, ain't I? Like a stuck pig. Bloody--right +enough. Bloody! I didn't know I 'ad it _in_ me.' + +"He looked at me and grinned with a sort of pale satisfaction in keeping +up to the last--dying good Ortheris to the finish. I just stood up +helpless in front of him, still rather dazed. + +"He said something about having a thundering thirst on him. + +"I really don't believe he felt any pain. He would have done if he had +lived. + +"And then while I was fumbling with my water-bottle, he collapsed. He +forgot all about Ortheris. Suddenly he said something that cut me all to +ribbons. His face puckered up just like the face of a fretful child +which refuses to go to bed. 'I didn't want to be aut of it,' he said +petulantly. 'And I'm done!' And then--then he just looked discontented +and miserable and died--right off. Turned his head a little way over. As +if he was impatient at everything. Fainted--and fluttered out. + +"For a time I kept trying to get him to drink.... + +"I couldn't believe he was dead.... + +"And suddenly it was all different. I began to cry. Like a baby. I kept +on with the water-bottle at his teeth long after I was convinced he was +dead. I didn't want him to be aut of it! God knows how I didn't. I +wanted my dear little Cockney cad back. Oh! most frightfully I wanted +him back. + +"I shook him. I was like a scared child. I blubbered and howled +things.... It's all different since he died. + +"My dear, dear Father, I am grieving and grieving--and it's altogether +nonsense. And it's all mixed up in my mind with the mess I trod on. And +it gets worse and worse. So that I don't seem to feel anything really, +even for Teddy. + +"It's been just the last straw of all this hellish foolery.... + +"If ever there was a bigger lie, my dear Daddy, than any other, it is +that man is a reasonable creature.... + +"War is just foolery--lunatic foolery--hell's foolery.... + +"But, anyhow, your son is sound and well--if sorrowful and angry. We +were relieved that night. And there are rumours that very soon we are to +have a holiday and a refit. We lost rather heavily. We have been +praised. But all along, Essex has done well. I can't reckon to get back +yet, but there are such things as leave for eight-and-forty hours or so +in England.... + +"I shall be glad of that sort of turning round.... + +"I'm tired. Oh! I'm tired.... + +"I wanted to write all about Jewell to his mother or his sweetheart or +some one; I wanted to wallow in his praises, to say all the things I +really find now that I thought about him, but I haven't even had that +satisfaction. He was a Poor Law child; he was raised in one of those +awful places between Sutton and Banstead in Surrey. I've told you of all +the sweethearting he had. 'Soldiers Three' was his Bible; he was always +singing 'Tipperary,' and he never got the tune right nor learnt more +than three lines of it. He laced all his talk with 'b----y'; it was his +jewel, his ruby. But he had the pluck of a robin or a squirrel; I never +knew him scared or anything but cheerful. Misfortunes, humiliations, +only made him chatty. And he'd starve to have something to give away. + +"Well, well, this is the way of war, Daddy. This is what war is. Damn +the Kaiser! Damn all fools.... Give my love to the Mother and the +bruddykins and every one...." + + +Section 19 + +It was just a day or so over three weeks after this last letter from +Hugh that Mr. Direck reappeared at Matching's Easy. He had had a trip to +Holland--a trip that was as much a flight from Cissie's reproaches as a +mission of inquiry. He had intended to go on into Belgium, where he had +already been doing useful relief work under Mr. Hoover, but the +confusion of his own feelings had checked him and brought him back. + +Mr. Direck's mind was in a perplexity only too common during the +stresses of that tragic year. He was entangled in a paradox; like a +large majority of Americans at that time his feelings were quite +definitely pro-Ally, and like so many in that majority he had a very +clear conviction that it would be wrong and impossible for the United +States to take part in the war. His sympathies were intensely with the +Dower House and its dependent cottage; he would have wept with generous +emotion to see the Stars and Stripes interwoven with the three other +great banners of red, white and blue that led the world against German +imperialism and militarism, but for all that his mind would not march to +that tune. Against all these impulses fought something very fundamental +in Mr. Direck's composition, a preconception of America that had grown +almost insensibly in his mind, the idea of America as a polity aloof +from the Old World system, as a fresh start for humanity, as something +altogether too fine and precious to be dragged into even the noblest of +European conflicts. America was to be the beginning of the fusion of +mankind, neither German nor British nor French nor in any way national. +She was to be the great experiment in peace and reasonableness. She had +to hold civilisation and social order out of this fray, to be a refuge +for all those finer things that die under stress and turmoil; it was her +task to maintain the standards of life and the claims of humanitarianism +in the conquered province and the prisoners' compound, she had to be +the healer and arbitrator, the remonstrance and not the smiting hand. +Surely there were enough smiting hands. + +But this idea of an America judicial, remonstrating, and aloof, led him +to a conclusion that scandalised him. If America will not, and should +not use force in the ends of justice, he argued, then America has no +right to make and export munitions of war. She must not trade in what +she disavows. He had a quite exaggerated idea of the amount of munitions +that America was sending to the Allies, he was inclined to believe that +they were entirely dependent upon their transatlantic supplies, and so +he found himself persuaded that the victory of the Allies and the honour +of America were incompatible things. And--in spite of his ethical +aloofness--he loved the Allies. He wanted them to win, and he wanted +America to abandon a course that he believed was vitally necessary to +their victory. It was an intellectual dilemma. He hid this +self-contradiction from Matching's Easy with much the same feelings that +a curate might hide a poisoned dagger at a tea-party.... + +It was entirely against his habits of mind to hide anything--more +particularly an entanglement with a difficult proposition--but he +perceived quite clearly that neither Cecily nor Mr. Britling were really +to be trusted to listen calmly to what, under happier circumstances, +might be a profoundly interesting moral complication. Yet it was not in +his nature to conceal; it was in his nature to state. + +And Cecily made things much more difficult. She was pitiless with him. +She kept him aloof. "How can I let you make love to me," she said, "when +our English men are all going to the war, when Teddy is a prisoner and +Hugh is in the trenches. If I were a man--!" + +She couldn't be induced to see any case for America. England was +fighting for freedom, and America ought to be beside her. "All the +world ought to unite against this German wickedness," she said. + +"I'm doing all I can to help in Belgium," he protested. "Aren't I +working? We've fed four million people." + +He had backbone, and he would not let her, he was resolved, bully him +into a falsehood about his country. America was aloof. She was right to +be aloof.... At the same time, Cecily's reproaches were unendurable. And +he could feel he was drifting apart from her.... + +_He_ couldn't make America go to war. + +In the quiet of his London hotel he thought it all out. He sat at a +writing-table making notes of a perfectly lucid statement of the +reasonable, balanced liberal American opinion. An instinct of caution +determined him to test it first on Mr. Britling. + +But Mr. Britling realised his worst expectations. He was beyond +listening. + +"I've not heard from my boy for more than three weeks," said Mr. +Britling in the place of any salutation. "This morning makes +three-and-twenty days without a letter." + +It seemed to Mr. Direck that Mr. Britling had suddenly grown ten years +older. His face was more deeply lined; the colour and texture of his +complexion had gone grey. He moved restlessly and badly; his nerves were +manifestly unstrung. + +"It's intolerable that one should be subjected to this ghastly suspense. +The boy isn't three hundred miles away." + +Mr. Direck made obvious inquiries. + +"Always before he's written--generally once a fortnight." + +They talked of Hugh for a time, but Mr. Britling was fitful and +irritable and quite prepared to hold Mr. Direck accountable for the +laxity of the War Office, the treachery of Bulgaria, the ambiguity of +Roumania or any other barb that chanced to be sticking into his +sensibilities. They lunched precariously. Then they went into the study +to smoke. + +There Mr. Direck was unfortunate enough to notice a copy of that +innocent American publication _The New Republic_, lying close to two or +three numbers of _The Fatherland_, a pro-German periodical which at that +time inflicted itself upon English writers with the utmost +determination. Mr. Direck remarked that _The New Republic_ was an +interesting effort on the part of "_la Jeunesse Americaine_." Mr. +Britling regarded the interesting effort with a jaded, unloving eye. + +"You Americans," he said, "are the most extraordinary people in the +world." + +"Our conditions are exceptional," said Mr. Direck. + +"You think they are," said Mr. Britling, and paused, and then began to +deliver his soul about America in a discourse of accumulating +bitterness. At first he reasoned and explained, but as he went on he +lost self-control; he became dogmatic, he became denunciatory, he became +abusive. He identified Mr. Direck more and more with his subject; he +thrust the uncivil "You" more and more directly at him. He let his cigar +go out, and flung it impatiently into the fire. As though America was +responsible for its going out.... + +Like many Britons Mr. Britling had that touch of patriotic feeling +towards America which takes the form of impatient criticism. No one in +Britain ever calls an American a foreigner. To see faults in Germany or +Spain is to tap boundless fountains of charity; but the faults of +America rankle in an English mind almost as much as the faults of +England. Mr. Britling could explain away the faults of England readily +enough; our Hanoverian monarchy, our Established Church and its +deadening effect on education, our imperial obligations and the strain +they made upon our supplies of administrative talent were all very +serviceable for that purpose. But there in America was the old race, +without Crown or Church or international embarrassment, and it was +still falling short of splendid. His speech to Mr. Direck had the +rancour of a family quarrel. Let me only give a few sentences that were +to stick in Mr. Direck's memory. + +"You think you are out of it for good and all. So did we think. We were +as smug as you are when France went down in '71.... Yours is only one +further degree of insularity. You think this vacuous aloofness of yours +is some sort of moral superiority. So did we, so did we.... + +"It won't last you ten years if we go down.... + +"Do you think that our disaster will leave the Atlantic for you? Do you +fancy there is any Freedom of the Seas possible beyond such freedom as +we maintain, except the freedom to attack you? For forty years the +British fleet has guarded all America from European attack. Your Monroe +doctrine skulks behind it now.... + +"I'm sick of this high thin talk of yours about the war.... You are a +nation of ungenerous onlookers--watching us throttle or be throttled. +You gamble on our winning. And we shall win; we shall win. And you will +profit. And when we have won a victory only one shade less terrible than +defeat, then you think you will come in and tinker with our peace. Bleed +us a little more to please your hyphenated patriots...." + +He came to his last shaft. "You talk of your New Ideals of Peace. You +say that you are too proud to fight. But your business men in New York +give the show away. There's a little printed card now in half the +offices in New York that tells of the real pacificism of America. +They're busy, you know. Trade's real good. And so as not to interrupt it +they stick up this card: 'Nix on the war!' Think of it!--'Nix on the +war!' Here is the whole fate of mankind at stake, and America's +contribution is a little grumbling when the Germans sank the +_Lusitania_, and no end of grumbling when we hold up a ship or two and +some fool of a harbour-master makes an overcharge. Otherwise--'Nix on +the war!'... + +"Well, let it be Nix on the war! Don't come here and talk to me! You who +were searching registers a year ago to find your Essex kin. Let it be +Nix! Explanations! What do I want with explanations? And"--he mocked his +guest's accent and his guest's mode of thought--"dif'cult prap'sitions." + +He got up and stood irresolute. He knew he was being preposterously +unfair to America, and outrageously uncivil to a trusting guest; he knew +he had no business now to end the talk in this violent fashion. But it +was an enormous relief. And to mend matters--_No!_ He was glad he'd said +these things.... + +He swung a shoulder to Mr. Direck, and walked out of the room.... + +Mr. Direck heard him cross the hall and slam the door of the little +parlour.... + +Mr. Direck had been stirred deeply by the tragic indignation of this +explosion, and the ring of torment in Mr. Britling's voice. He had stood +up also, but he did not follow his host. + +"It's his boy," said Mr. Direck at last, confidentially to the +writing-desk. "How can one argue with him? It's just hell for him...." + + +Section 20 + +Mr. Direck took his leave of Mrs. Britling, and went very slowly towards +the little cottage. But he did not go to the cottage. He felt he would +only find another soul in torment there. + +"What's the good of hanging round talking?" said Mr. Direck. + +He stopped at the stile in the lane, and sat thinking deeply. "Only one +thing will convince her," he said. + +He held out his fingers. "First this," he whispered, "and then that. +Yes." + +He went on as far as the bend from which one sees the cottage, and stood +for a little time regarding it. + +He returned still more sorrowfully to the junction, and with every step +he took it seemed to him that he would rather see Cecily angry and +insulting than not see her at all. + +At the post office he stopped and wrote a letter-card. + +"Dear Cissie," he wrote. "I came down to-day to see you--and thought +better of it. I'm going right off to find out about Teddy. Somehow I'll +get that settled. I'll fly around and do that somehow if I have to go up +to the German front to do it. And when I've got that settled I've got +something else in my mind--well, it will wipe out all this little +trouble that's got so big between us about neutrality. And I love you +dearly, Cissie." + +That was all the card would hold. + + +Section 21 + +And then as if it were something that every one in the Dower House had +been waiting for, came the message that Hugh had been killed. + +The telegram was brought up by a girl in a pinafore instead of the boy +of the old dispensation, for boys now were doing the work of youths and +youths the work of the men who had gone to the war. + +Mr. Britling was standing at the front door; he had been surveying the +late October foliage, touched by the warm light of the afternoon, when +the messenger appeared. He opened the telegram, hoping as he had hoped +when he opened any telegram since Hugh had gone to the front that it +would not contain the exact words he read; that it would say wounded, +that at the worst it would say "missing," that perhaps it might even +tell of some pleasant surprise, a brief return to home such as the last +letter had foreshadowed. He read the final, unqualified statement, the +terse regrets. He stood quite still for a moment or so, staring at the +words.... + +It was a mile and a quarter from the post office to the Dower House, and +it was always his custom to give telegraph messengers who came to his +house twopence, and he wanted very much to get rid of the telegraph +girl, who stood expectantly before him holding her red bicycle. He felt +now very sick and strained; he had a conviction that if he did not by an +effort maintain his bearing cool and dry he would howl aloud. He felt in +his pocket for money; there were some coppers and a shilling. He pulled +it all out together and stared at it. + +He had an absurd conviction that this ought to be a sixpenny telegram. +The thing worried him. He wanted to give the brat sixpence, and he had +only threepence and a shilling, and he didn't know what to do and his +brain couldn't think. It would be a shocking thing to give her a +shilling, and he couldn't somehow give just coppers for so important a +thing as Hugh's death. Then all this problem vanished and he handed the +child the shilling. She stared at him, inquiring, incredulous. "Is there +a reply, Sir, please?" + +"No," he said, "that's for you. All of it.... This is a peculiar sort of +telegram.... It's news of importance...." + +As he said this he met her eyes, and had a sudden persuasion that she +knew exactly what it was the telegram had told him, and that she was +shocked at this gala-like treatment of such terrible news. He hesitated, +feeling that he had to say something else, that he was socially +inadequate, and then he decided that at any cost he must get his face +away from her staring eyes. She made no movement to turn away. She +seemed to be taking him in, recording him, for repetition, greedily, +with every fibre of her being. + +He stepped past her into the garden, and instantly forgot about her +existence.... + + +Section 22 + +He had been thinking of this possibility for the last few weeks almost +continuously, and yet now that it had come to him he felt that he had +never thought about it before, that he must go off alone by himself to +envisage this monstrous and terrible fact, without distraction or +interruption. + +He saw his wife coming down the alley between the roses. + +He was wrenched by emotions as odd and unaccountable as the emotions of +adolescence. He had exactly the same feeling now that he had had when in +his boyhood some unpleasant admission had to be made to his parents. He +felt he could not go through a scene with her yet, that he could not +endure the task of telling her, of being observed. He turned abruptly to +his left. He walked away as if he had not seen her, across his lawn +towards the little summer-house upon a knoll that commanded the high +road. She called to him, but he did not answer.... + +He would not look towards her, but for a time all his senses were alert +to hear whether she followed him. Safe in the summer-house he could +glance back. + +It was all right. She was going into the house. + +He drew the telegram from his pocket again furtively, almost guiltily, +and re-read it. He turned it over and read it again.... + +_Killed._ + +Then his own voice, hoarse and strange to his ears, spoke his thought. + +"My God! how unutterably silly.... Why did I let him go? Why did I let +him go?" + + +Section 23 + +Mrs. Britling did not learn of the blow that had struck them until after +dinner that night. She was so accustomed to ignore his incomprehensible +moods that she did not perceive that there was anything tragic about +him until they sat at table together. He seemed heavy and sulky and +disposed to avoid her, but that sort of moodiness was nothing very +strange to her. She knew that things that seemed to her utterly trivial, +the reading of political speeches in _The Times_, little comments on +life made in the most casual way, mere movements, could so avert him. +She had cultivated a certain disregard of such fitful darknesses. But at +the dinner-table she looked up, and was stabbed to the heart to see a +haggard white face and eyes of deep despair regarding her ambiguously. + +"Hugh!" she said, and then with a chill intimation, "_What is it?_" + +They looked at each other. His face softened and winced. + +"My Hugh," he whispered, and neither spoke for some seconds. + +"_Killed_," he said, and suddenly stood up whimpering, and fumbled with +his pocket. + +It seemed he would never find what he sought. It came at last, a +crumpled telegram. He threw it down before her, and then thrust his +chair back clumsily and went hastily out of the room. She heard him sob. +She had not dared to look at his face again. + +"Oh!" she cried, realising that an impossible task had been thrust upon +her. + +"But what can I _say_ to him?" she said, with the telegram in her hand. + +The parlourmaid came into the room. + +"Clear the dinner away!" said Mrs. Britling, standing at her place. +"Master Hugh is killed...." And then wailing: "Oh! what can I _say_? +What can I _say_?" + + +Section 24 + +That night Mrs. Britling made the supreme effort of her life to burst +the prison of self-consciousness and inhibition in which she was +confined. Never before in all her life had she so desired to be +spontaneous and unrestrained; never before had she so felt herself +hampered by her timidity, her self-criticism, her deeply ingrained habit +of never letting herself go. She was rent by reflected distress. It +seemed to her that she would be ready to give her life and the whole +world to be able to comfort her husband now. And she could conceive no +gesture of comfort. She went out of the dining-room into the hall and +listened. She went very softly upstairs until she came to the door of +her husband's room. There she stood still. She could hear no sound from +within. She put out her hand and turned the handle of the door a little +way, and then she was startled by the loudness of the sound it made and +at her own boldness. She withdrew her hand, and then with a gesture of +despair, with a face of white agony, she flitted along the corridor to +her own room. + +Her mind was beaten to the ground by this catastrophe, of which to this +moment she had never allowed herself to think. She had never allowed +herself to think of it. The figure of her husband, like some pitiful +beast, wounded and bleeding, filled her mind. She gave scarcely a +thought to Hugh. "Oh, what can I _do_ for him?" she asked herself, +sitting down before her unlit bedroom fire.... "What can I say or do?" + +She brooded until she shivered, and then she lit her fire.... + +It was late that night and after an eternity of resolutions and doubts +and indecisions that Mrs. Britling went to her husband. He was sitting +close up to the fire with his chin upon his hands, waiting for her; he +felt that she would come to him, and he was thinking meanwhile of Hugh +with a slow unprogressive movement of the mind. He showed by a movement +that he heard her enter the room, but he did not turn to look at her. He +shrank a little from her approach. + +She came and stood beside him. She ventured to touch him very softly, +and to stroke his head. "My dear," she said. "My poor dear! + +"It is so dreadful for you," she said, "it is so dreadful for you. I +know how you loved him...." + +He spread his hands over his face and became very still. + +"My poor dear!" she said, still stroking his hair, "my poor dear!" + +And then she went on saying "poor dear," saying it presently because +there was nothing more had come into her mind. She desired supremely to +be his comfort, and in a little while she was acting comfort so poorly +that she perceived her own failure. And that increased her failure, and +that increased her paralysing sense of failure.... + +And suddenly her stroking hand ceased. Suddenly the real woman cried out +from her. + +"I can't _reach_ you!" she cried aloud. "I can't reach you. I would do +anything.... You! You with your heart half broken...." + +She turned towards the door. She moved clumsily, she was blinded by her +tears. + +Mr. Britling uncovered his face. He stood up astonished, and then pity +and pitiful understanding came storming across his grief. He made a step +and took her in his arms. "My dear," he said, "don't go from me...." + +She turned to him weeping, and put her arms about his neck, and he too +was weeping. + +"My poor wife!" he said, "my dear wife. If it were not for you--I think +I could kill myself to-night. Don't cry, my dear. Don't, don't cry. You +do not know how you comfort me. You do not know how you help me." + +He drew her to him; he put her cheek against his own.... + +His heart was so sore and wounded that he could not endure that another +human being should go wretched. He sat down in his chair and drew her +upon his knees, and said everything he could think of to console her +and reassure her and make her feel that she was of value to him. He +spoke of every pleasant aspect of their lives, of every aspect, except +that he never named that dear pale youth who waited now.... He could +wait a little longer.... + +At last she went from him. + +"Good night," said Mr. Britling, and took her to the door. "It was very +dear of you to come and comfort me," he said.... + + +Section 25 + +He closed the door softly behind her. + +The door had hardly shut upon her before he forgot her. Instantly he was +alone again, utterly alone. He was alone in an empty world.... + +Loneliness struck him like a blow. He had dependents, he had cares. He +had never a soul to whom he might weep.... + +For a time he stood beside his open window. He looked at the bed--but no +sleep he knew would come that night--until the sleep of exhaustion came. +He looked at the bureau at which he had so often written. But the +writing there was a shrivelled thing.... + +This room was unendurable. He must go out. He turned to the window, and +outside was a troublesome noise of night-jars and a distant roaring of +stags, black trees, blacknesses, the sky clear and remote with a great +company of stars.... The stars seemed attentive. They stirred and yet +were still. It was as if they were the eyes of watchers. He would go out +to them.... + +Very softly he went towards the passage door, and still more softly felt +his way across the landing and down the staircase. Once or twice he +paused to listen. + +He let himself out with elaborate precautions.... + +Across the dark he went, and suddenly his boy was all about him, +playing, climbing the cedars, twisting miraculously about the lawn on a +bicycle, discoursing gravely upon his future, lying on the grass, +breathing very hard and drawing preposterous caricatures. Once again +they walked side by side up and down--it was athwart this very +spot--talking gravely but rather shyly.... + +And here they had stood a little awkwardly, before the boy went in to +say good-bye to his stepmother and go off with his father to the +station.... + +"I will work to-morrow again," whispered Mr. Britling, "but +to-night--to-night.... To-night is yours.... Can you hear me, can you +hear? Your father ... who had counted on you...." + + +Section 26 + +He went into the far corner of the hockey paddock, and there he moved +about for a while and then stood for a long time holding the fence with +both hands and staring blankly into the darkness. At last he turned +away, and went stumbling and blundering towards the rose garden. A spray +of creeper tore his face and distressed him. He thrust it aside +fretfully, and it scratched his hand. He made his way to the seat in the +arbour, and sat down and whispered a little to himself, and then became +very still with his arm upon the back of the seat and his head upon his +arm. + + + + + + +BOOK III + +THE TESTAMENT OF MATCHING'S EASY + + + + +CHAPTER THE FIRST + +MRS. TEDDY GOES FOR A WALK + + +Section 1 + +All over England now, where the livery of mourning had been a rare thing +to see, women and children went about in the October sunshine in new +black clothes. Everywhere one met these fresh griefs, mothers who had +lost their sons, women who had lost their men, lives shattered and hopes +destroyed. The dyers had a great time turning coloured garments to +black. And there was also a growing multitude of crippled and disabled +men. It was so in England, much more was it so in France and Russia, in +all the countries of the Allies, and in Germany and Austria; away into +Asia Minor and Egypt, in India and Japan and Italy there was mourning, +the world was filled with loss and mourning and impoverishment and +distress. + +And still the mysterious powers that required these things of mankind +were unappeased, and each day added its quota of heart-stabbing messages +and called for new mourning, and sent home fresh consignments of broken +and tormented men. + +Some clung to hopes that became at last almost more terrible than black +certainties.... + +Mrs. Teddy went about the village in a coloured dress bearing herself +confidently. Teddy had been listed now as "missing, since reported +killed," and she had had two letters from his comrades. They said Teddy +had been left behind in the ruins of a farm with one or two other +wounded, and that when the Canadians retook the place these wounded had +all been found butchered. None had been found alive. Afterwards the +Canadians had had to fall back. Mr. Direck had been at great pains to +hunt up wounded men from Teddy's company, and also any likely Canadians +both at the base hospital in France and in London, and to get what he +could from them. He had made it a service to Cissie. Only one of his +witnesses was quite clear about Teddy, but he, alas! was dreadfully +clear. There had been only one lieutenant among the men left behind, he +said, and obviously that must have been Teddy. "He had been prodded in +half-a-dozen places. His head was nearly severed from his body." + +Direck came down and told the story to Cissie. "Shall I tell it to her?" +he asked. + +Cissie thought. "Not yet," she said.... + +Letty's face changed in those pitiful weeks when she was denying death. +She lost her pretty colour, she became white; her mouth grew hard and +her eyes had a hard brightness. She never wept, she never gave a sign of +sorrow, and she insisted upon talking about Teddy, in a dry offhand +voice. Constantly she referred to his final return. "Teddy," she said, +"will be surprised at this," or "Teddy will feel sold when he sees how I +have altered that." + +"Presently we shall see his name in a list of prisoners," she said. "He +is a wounded prisoner in Germany." + +She adopted that story. She had no justification for it, but she would +hear no doubts upon it. She presently began to prepare parcels to send +him. "They want almost everything," she told people. "They are treated +abominably. He has not been able to write to me yet, but I do not think +I ought to wait until he asks me." + +Cissie was afraid to interfere with this. + +After a time Letty grew impatient at the delay in getting any address +and took her first parcel to the post office. + +"Unless you know what prison he is at," said the postmistress. + +"Pity!" said Letty. "I don't know that. Must it wait for that? I +thought the Germans were so systematic that it didn't matter." + +The postmistress made tedious explanations that Letty did not seem to +hear. She stared straight in front of her at nothing. Then in a pause in +the conversation she picked up her parcel. + +"It's tiresome for him to have to wait," she said. "But it can't be long +before I know." + +She took the parcel back to the cottage. + +"After all," she said, "it gives us time to get the better sort of +throat lozenges for him--the sort the syndicate shop doesn't keep." + +She put the parcel conspicuously upon the dresser in the kitchen where +it was most in the way, and set herself to make a jersey for Teddy +against the coming of the cold weather. + +But one night the white mask fell for a moment from her face. + +Cissie and she had been sitting in silence before the fire. She had been +knitting--she knitted very badly--and Cissie had been pretending to +read, and had been watching her furtively. Cissie eyed the slow, +toilsome growth of the slack woolwork for a time, and the touch of angry +effort in every stroke of the knitting needles. Then she was stirred to +remonstrance. + +"Poor Letty!" she said very softly. "Suppose after all, he is dead?" + +Letty met her with a pitiless stare. + +"He is a prisoner," she said. "Isn't that enough? Why do you jab at me +by saying that? A wounded prisoner. Isn't that enough despicable +trickery for God even to play on Teddy--our Teddy? To the very last +moment he shall not be dead. Until the war is over. Until six months +after the war.... + +"I will tell you why, Cissie...." + +She leant across the table and pointed her remarks with her knitting +needles, speaking in a tone of reasonable remonstrance. "You see," she +said, "if people like Teddy are to be killed, then all our ideas that +life is meant for, honesty and sweetness and happiness, are wrong, and +this world is just a place of devils; just a dirty cruel hell. Getting +born would be getting damned. And so one must not give way to that idea, +however much it may seem likely that he is dead.... + +"You see, if he _is_ dead, then Cruelty is the Law, and some one must +pay me for his death.... Some one must pay me.... I shall wait for six +months after the war, dear, and then I shall go off to Germany and learn +my way about there. And I will murder some German. Not just a common +German, but a German who belongs to the guilty kind. A sacrifice. It +ought, for instance, to be comparatively easy to kill some of the +children of the Crown Prince or some of the Bavarian princes. I shall +prefer German children. I shall sacrifice them to Teddy. It ought not to +be difficult to find people who can be made directly responsible, the +people who invented the poison gas, for instance, and kill them, or to +kill people who are dear to them. Or necessary to them.... Women can do +that so much more easily than men.... + +"That perhaps is the only way in which wars of this kind will ever be +brought to an end. By women insisting on killing the kind of people who +make them. Rooting them out. By a campaign of pursuit and assassination +that will go on for years and years after the war itself is over.... +Murder is such a little gentle punishment for the crime of war.... It +would be hardly more than a reproach for what has happened. Falling like +snow. Death after death. Flake by flake. This prince. That statesman. +The count who writes so fiercely for war.... That is what I am going to +do. If Teddy is really dead.... We women were ready enough a year or so +ago to starve and die for the Vote, and that was quite a little thing in +comparison with this business.... Don't you see what I mean? It's so +plain and sensible, Cissie. Whenever a man sits and thinks whether he +will make a war or not, then he will think too of women, women with +daggers, bombs; of a vengeance that will never tire nor rest; of +consecrated patient women ready to start out upon a pilgrimage that will +only end with his death.... I wouldn't hurt these war makers. No. In +spite of the poison gas. In spite of trench feet and the men who have +been made blind and the wounded who have lain for days, dying slowly in +the wet. Women ought not to hurt. But I would kill. Like killing +dangerous vermin. It would go on year by year. Balkan kings, German +princes, chancellors, they would have schemed for so much--and come to +just a rattle in the throat.... And if presently other kings and +emperors began to prance about and review armies, they too would go.... + +"Until all the world understood that women would not stand war any more +forever.... + +"Of course I shall do something of the sort. What else is there to do +now for me?" + +Letty's eyes were bright and intense, but her voice was soft and +subdued. She went on after a pause in the same casual voice. "You see +now, Cissie, why I cling to the idea that Teddy is alive. If Teddy is +alive, then even if he is wounded, he will get some happiness out of +it--and all this won't be--just rot. If he is dead then everything is so +desperately silly and cruel from top to bottom--" + +She smiled wanly to finish her sentence. + +"But, Letty!" said Cissie, "there is the boy!" + +"I shall leave the boy to you. Compared with Teddy I don't care _that_ +for the boy. I never did. What is the good of pretending? Some women are +made like that." + +She surveyed her knitting. "Poor stitches," she said.... + +"I'm hard stuff, Cissie. I take after mother more than father. Teddy is +my darling. All the tenderness of my life is Teddy. If it goes, it +goes.... I won't crawl about the world like all these other snivelling +widows. If they've killed my man I shall kill. Blood for blood and loss +for loss. I shall get just as close to the particular Germans who made +this war as I can, and I shall kill them and theirs.... + +"The Women's Association for the Extirpation of the whole breed of War +Lords," she threw out. "If I _do_ happen to hurt--does it matter?" + +She looked at her sister's shocked face and smiled again. + +"You think I go about staring at nothing," she remarked.... "Not a bit +of it! I have been planning all sorts of things.... I have been thinking +how I could get to Germany.... Or one might catch them in +Switzerland.... I've had all sorts of plans. They can't go guarded for +ever.... + +"Oh, it makes me despise humanity to see how many soldiers and how few +assassins there are in the world.... After the things we have seen. If +people did their duty by the dagger there wouldn't be such a thing as a +War Lord in the world. Not one.... The Kaiser and his sons and his sons' +sons would know nothing but fear now for all their lives. Fear would +only cease to pursue as the coffin went down into the grave. Fear by +sea, fear by land, for the vessel he sailed in, the train he travelled +in, fear when he slept for the death in his dreams, fear when he waked +for the death in every shadow; fear in every crowd, fear whenever he was +alone. Fear would stalk him through the trees, hide in the corner of the +staircase; make all his food taste perplexingly, so that he would want +to spit it out...." + +She sat very still brooding on that idea for a time, and then stood up. + +"What nonsense one talks!" she cried, and yawned. "I wonder why poor +Teddy doesn't send me a post card or something to tell me his address. I +tell you what I _am_ afraid of sometimes about him, Cissie." + +"Yes?" said Cissie. + +"Loss of memory. Suppose a beastly lump of shell or something whacked +him on the head.... I had a dream of him looking strange about the eyes +and not knowing me. That, you know, really _may_ have happened.... It +would be beastly, of course...." + +Cissie's eyes were critical, but she had nothing ready to say. + +There were some moments of silence. + +"Oh! bed," said Letty. "Though I shall just lie scheming." + + +Section 2 + +Cissie lay awake that night thinking about her sister as if she had +never thought about her before. + +She began to weigh the concentrated impressions of a thousand memories. +She and her sister were near in age; they knew each other with an +extreme intimacy, and yet it seemed to Cissie that night as though she +did not know Letty at all. A year ago she would have been certain she +knew everything about her. But the old familiar Letty, with the bright +complexion, and the wicked eye, with her rebellious schoolgirl +insistence upon the beautifulness of "Boof'l young men," and her frank +and glowing passion for Teddy, with her delight in humorous +mystifications and open-air exercise and all the sunshine and laughter +of life, this sister Letty, who had been so satisfactory and complete +and final, had been thrust aside like a mask. Cissie no longer knew her +sister's eyes. Letty's hand had become thin and unfamiliar and a little +wrinkled; she was sharp-featured and thin-lipped; her acts, which had +once been predictable, were incomprehensible, and Cissie was thrown back +upon speculations. In their schooldays Letty had had a streak of intense +sensibility; she had been easily moved to tears. But never once had she +wept or given any sign of weeping since Teddy's name had appeared in the +casualty list.... What was the strength of this tragic tension? How far +would it carry her? Was Letty really capable of becoming a Charlotte +Corday? Of carrying out a scheme of far-seeing vengeance, of making her +way through long months and years nearer and nearer to revenge? + +Were such revenges possible? + +Would people presently begin to murder the makers of the Great War? What +a strange thing it would be in history if so there came a punishment and +end to the folly of kings! + +Only a little while ago Cissie's imagination might have been captured by +so romantic a dream. She was still but a year or so out of the stage of +melodrama. But she was out of it. She was growing up now to a subtler +wisdom. People, she was beginning to realise, do not do these simple +things. They make vows of devotion and they are not real vows of +devotion; they love--quite honestly--and qualify. There are no great +revenges but only little mean ones; no life-long vindications except the +unrelenting vengeance of the law. There is no real concentration of +people's lives anywhere such as romance demands. There is change, there +is forgetfulness. Everywhere there is dispersal. Even to the tragic +story of Teddy would come the modifications of time. Even to the +wickedness of the German princes would presently be added some +conflicting aspects. Could Letty keep things for years in her mind, hard +and terrible, as they were now? Surely they would soften; other things +would overlay them.... + +There came a rush of memories of Letty in a dozen schoolgirl adventures, +times when she had ventured, and times when she had failed; Letty +frightened, Letty vexed, Letty launching out to great enterprises, going +high and hard and well for a time, and then failing. She had seen Letty +snivelling and dirty; Letty shamed and humiliated. She knew her Letty to +the soul. Poor Letty! Poor dear Letty! With a sudden clearness of vision +Cissie realised what was happening in her sister's mind. All this tense +scheming of revenges was the imaginative play with which Letty warded +off the black alternative to her hope; it was not strength, it was +weakness. It was a form of giving way. She could not face starkly the +simple fact of Teddy's death. That was too much for her. So she was +building up this dream of a mission of judgment against the day when she +could resist the facts no longer. She was already persuaded, only she +would not be persuaded until her dream was ready. If this state of +suspense went on she might establish her dream so firmly that it would +at last take complete possession of her mind. And by that time also she +would have squared her existence at Matching's Easy with the elaboration +of her reverie. + +She would go about the place then, fancying herself preparing for this +tremendous task she would never really do; she would study German maps; +she would read the papers about German statesmen and rulers; perhaps she +would even make weak attempts to obtain a situation in Switzerland or in +Germany. Perhaps she would buy a knife or a revolver. Perhaps presently +she would begin to hover about Windsor or Sandringham when peace was +made, and the German cousins came visiting again.... + +Into Cissie's mind came the image of the thing that might be; Letty, +shabby, draggled, with her sharp bright prettiness become haggard, an +assassin dreamer, still dependent on Mr. Britling, doing his work rather +badly, in a distraught unpunctual fashion. + +She must be told, she must be convinced soon, or assuredly she would +become an eccentric, a strange character, a Matching's Easy Miss +Flite.... + + +Section 3 + +Cissie could think more clearly of Letty's mind than of her own. + +She herself was in a tangle. She had grown to be very fond of Mr. +Direck, and to have a profound trust and confidence in him, and her +fondness seemed able to find no expression at all except a constant +girding at his and America's avoidance of war. She had fallen in love +with him when he was wearing fancy dress; she was a young woman with a +stronger taste for body and colour than she supposed; what indeed she +resented about him, though she did not know it, was that he seemed never +disposed to carry the spirit of fancy dress into everyday life. To begin +with he had touched both her imagination and senses, and she wanted him +to go on doing that. Instead of which he seemed lapsing more and more +into reiterated assurances of devotion and the flat competent discharge +of humanitarian duties. Always nowadays he was trying to persuade her +that what he was doing was the right and honourable thing for him to do; +what he did not realise, what indeed she did not realise, was the +exasperation his rightness and reasonableness produced in her. When he +saw he exasperated her he sought very earnestly to be righter and +reasonabler and more plainly and demonstrably right and reasonable than +ever. + +Withal, as she felt and perceived, he was such a good thing, such a very +good thing; so kind, so trustworthy, with a sort of slow strength, with +a careful honesty, a big good childishness, a passion for fairness. And +so helpless in her hands. She could lash him and distress him. Yet she +could not shake his slowly formed convictions. + +When Cissie had dreamt of the lover that fate had in store for her in +her old romantic days, he was to be _perfect_ always, he and she were +always to be absolutely in the right (and, if the story needed it, the +world in the wrong). She had never expected to find herself tied by her +affections to a man with whom she disagreed, and who went contrary to +her standards, very much as if she was lashed on the back of a very nice +elephant that would wince to but not obey the goad.... + +So she nagged him and taunted him, and would hear no word of his case. +And he wanted dreadfully to discuss his case. He felt that the point of +conscience about the munitions was particularly fine and difficult. He +wished she would listen and enter into it more. But she thought with +that more rapid English flash which is not so much thinking as feeling. +He loved that flash in her in spite of his persuasion of its injustice. + +Her thought that he ought to go to the war made him feel like a +renegade; but her claim that he was somehow still English held him in +spite of his reason. In the midst of such perplexities he was glad to +find one neutral task wherein he could find himself whole-heartedly with +and for Cissie. + +He hunted up the evidence of Teddy's fate with a devoted pertinacity. + +And in the meanwhile the other riddle resolved itself. He had had a +certain idea in his mind for some time. He discovered one day that it +was an inspiration. He could keep his conscientious objection about +America, and still take a line that would satisfy Cissie. He took it. + +When he came down to Matching's Easy at her summons to bear his +convincing witness of Teddy's fate, he came in an unwonted costume. It +was a costume so wonderful in his imagination that it seemed to cry +aloud, to sound like a trumpet as he went through London to Liverpool +Street station; it was a costume like an international event; it was a +costume that he felt would blare right away to Berlin. And yet it was a +costume so commonplace, so much the usual wear now, that Cissie, meeting +him at the station and full of the thought of Letty's trouble, did not +remark it, felt indeed rather than observed that he was looking more +strong and handsome than he had ever done since he struck upon her +imagination in the fantastic wrap that Teddy had found for him in the +merry days when there was no death in the world. And Letty too, +resistant, incalculable, found no wonder in the wonderful suit. + +He bore his testimony. It was the queer halting telling of a +patched-together tale.... + +"I suppose," said Letty, "if I tell you now that I don't believe that +that officer was Teddy you will think I am cracked.... But I don't." + +She sat staring straight before her for a time after saying this. Then +suddenly she got up and began taking down her hat and coat from the peg +behind the kitchen door. The hanging strap of the coat was twisted and +she struggled with it petulantly until she tore it. + +"Where are you going?" cried Cissie. + +Letty's voice over her shoulder was the harsh voice of a scolding woman. + +"I'm going out--anywhere." She turned, coat in hand. "Can't I go out if +I like?" she asked. "It's a beautiful day.... Mustn't I go out?... I +suppose you think I ought to take in what you have told me in a moment. +Just smile and say '_Indeed!_' ... Abandoned!--while his men retreated! +How jolly! And then not think of it any more.... Besides, I must go out. +You two want to be left together. You want to canoodle. Do it while you +can!" + +Then she put on coat and hat, jamming her hat down on her head, and said +something that Cissie did not immediately understand. + +"_He'll_ have his turn in the trenches soon enough. Now that he's made +up his mind.... He might have done it sooner...." + +She turned her back as though she had forgotten them. She stood for a +moment as though her feet were wooden, not putting her feet as she +usually put her feet. She took slow, wide, unsure steps. She went +out--like something that is mortally injured and still walks--into the +autumnal sunshine. She left the door wide open behind her. + + +Section 4 + +And Cissie, with eyes full of distress for her sister, had still to +grasp the fact that Direck was wearing a Canadian uniform.... + +He stood behind her, ashamed that in such a moment this fact and its +neglect by every one could be so vivid in his mind. + + +Section 5 + +Cissie's estimate of her sister's psychology had been just. The reverie +of revenge had not yet taken a grip upon Letty's mind sufficiently +strong to meet the challenge of this conclusive evidence of Teddy's +death. She walked out into a world of sunshine now almost completely +convinced that Teddy was dead, and she knew quite well that her dream of +some dramatic and terrible vindication had gone from her. She knew that +in truth she could do nothing of that sort.... + +She walked out with a set face and eyes that seemed unseeing, and yet it +was as if some heavy weight had been lifted from her shoulders. It was +over; there was no more to hope for and there was nothing more to fear. +She would have been shocked to realise that her mind was relieved. + +She wanted to be alone. She wanted to be away from every eye. She was +like some creature that after a long nightmare incubation is at last +born into a clear, bleak day. She had to feel herself; she had to +stretch her mind in this cheerless sunshine, this new world, where there +was to be no more Teddy and no real revenge nor compensation for Teddy. +Teddy was past.... + +Hitherto she had had an angry sense of being deprived of Teddy--almost +as though he were keeping away from her. Now, there was no more Teddy to +be deprived of.... + +She went through the straggling village, and across the fields to the +hillside that looks away towards Mertonsome and its steeple. And where +the hill begins to fall away she threw herself down under the hedge by +the path, near by the stile into the lane, and lay still. She did not so +much think as remain blank, waiting for the beginning of impressions.... + +It was as it were a blank stare at the world.... + +She did not know if it was five minutes or half an hour later that she +became aware that some one was looking at her. She turned with a start, +and discovered the Reverend Dimple with one foot on the stile, and an +expression of perplexity and consternation upon his chubby visage. + +Instantly she understood. Already on four different occasions since +Teddy's disappearance she had seen the good man coming towards her, +always with a manifest decision, always with the same faltering doubt as +now. Often in their happy days had she and Teddy discussed him and +derided him and rejoiced over him. They had agreed he was as good as +Jane Austen's Mr. Collins. He really was very like Mr. Collins, except +that he was plumper. And now, it was as if he was transparent to her +hard defensive scrutiny. She knew he was impelled by his tradition, by +his sense of fitness, by his respect for his calling, to offer her his +ministrations and consolations, to say his large flat amiabilities over +her and pat her kindly with his hands. And she knew too that he dreaded +her. She knew that the dear old humbug knew at the bottom of his heart +quite certainly that he was a poor old humbug, and that she was in his +secret. And at the bottom of his heart he found himself too honest to +force his poor platitudes upon any who would not be glad of them. If she +could have been glad of them he would have had no compunction. He was a +man divided against himself; failing to carry through his rich +pretences, dismayed. + +He had been taking his afternoon "constitutional." He had discovered her +beyond the stile just in time to pull up. Then had come a fatal, a +preposterous hesitation. She stared at him now, with hard, +expressionless eyes. + +He stared back at her, until his plump pink face was all consternation. +He was extraordinarily distressed. It was as if a thousand unspoken +things had been said between them. + +"No wish," he said, "intrude." + +If he had had the certain balm, how gladly would he have given it! + +He broke the spell by stepping back into the lane. He made a gesture +with his hands, as if he would have wrung them. And then he had fled +down the lane--almost at a run. + +"Po' girl," he shouted. "Po' girl," and left her staring. + +Staring--and then she laughed. + +This was good. This was the sort of thing one could tell Teddy, when at +last he came back and she could tell him anything. And then she realised +again; there was no more Teddy, there would be no telling. And suddenly +she fell weeping. + +"Oh, Teddy, Teddy," she cried through her streaming tears. "How could +you leave me? How can I bear it?" + +Never a tear had she shed since the news first came, and now she could +weep, she could weep her grief out. She abandoned herself unreservedly +to this blessed relief.... + + +Section 6 + +There comes an end to weeping at last, and Letty lay still, in the red +light of the sinking sun. + +She lay so still that presently a little foraging robin came dirting +down to the grass not ten yards away and stopped and looked at her. And +then it came a hop or so nearer. + +She had been lying in a state of passive abandonment, her swollen wet +eyes open, regardless of everything. But those quick movements caught +her back to attention. She began to watch the robin, and to note how it +glanced sidelong at her and appeared to meditate further approaches. She +made an almost imperceptible movement, and straightway the little +creature was in a projecting spray of berried hawthorn overhead. + +Her tear-washed mind became vaguely friendly. With an unconscious +comfort it focussed down to the robin. She rolled over, sat up, and +imitated his friendly "cheep." + + +Section 7 + +Presently she became aware of footsteps rustling through the grass +towards her. + +She looked over her shoulder and discovered Mr. Britling approaching by +the field path. He looked white and tired and listless, even his +bristling hair and moustache conveyed his depression; he was dressed in +an old tweed knickerbocker suit and carrying a big atlas and some +papers. He had an effect of hesitation in his approach. It was as if he +wanted to talk to her and doubted her reception for him. + +He spoke without any preface. "Direck has told you?" he said, standing +over her. + +She answered with a sob. + +"I was afraid it was so, and yet I did not believe it," said Mr. +Britling. "Until now." + +He hesitated as if he would go on, and then he knelt down on the grass a +little way from her and seated himself. There was an interval of +silence. + +"At first it hurts like the devil," he said at last, looking away at +Mertonsome spire and speaking as if he spoke to no one in particular. +"And then it hurts. It goes on hurting.... And one can't say much to any +one...." + +He said no more for a time. But the two of them comforted one another, +and knew that they comforted each other. They had a common feeling of +fellowship and ease. They had been stricken by the same thing; they +understood how it was with each other. It was not like the attempted +comfort they got from those who had not loved and dreaded.... + +She took up a little broken twig and dug small holes in the ground with +it. + +"It's strange," she said, "but I'm glad I know for sure." + +"I can understand that," said Mr. Britling. + +"It stops the nightmares.... It isn't hopes I've had so much as +fears.... I wouldn't admit he was dead or hurt. Because--I couldn't +think it without thinking it--horrible. _Now_--" + +"It's final," said Mr. Britling. + +"It's definite," she said after a pause. "It's like thinking he's +asleep--for good." + +But that did not satisfy her. There was more than this in her mind. "It +does away with the half and half," she said. "He's dead or he is +alive...." + +She looked up at Mr. Britling as if she measured his understanding. + +"You don't still doubt?" he said. + +"I'm content now in my mind--in a way. He wasn't anyhow there--unless he +was dead. But if I saw Teddy coming over the hedge there to me--It would +be just natural.... No, don't stare at me. I know really he is dead. And +it is a comfort. It is peace.... All the thoughts of him being crushed +dreadfully or being mutilated or lying and screaming--or things like +that--they've gone. He's out of his spoilt body. He's my unbroken Teddy +again.... Out of sight somewhere.... Unbroken.... Sleeping." + +She resumed her excavation with the little stick, with the tears running +down her face. + +Mr. Britling presently went on with the talk. "For me it came all at +once, without a doubt or a hope. I hoped until the last that nothing +would touch Hugh. And then it was like a black shutter falling--in an +instant...." + +He considered. "Hugh, too, seems just round the corner at times. But at +times, it's a blank place.... + +"At times," said Mr. Britling, "I feel nothing but astonishment. The +whole thing becomes incredible. Just as for weeks after the war began I +couldn't believe that a big modern nation could really go to +war--seriously--with its whole heart.... And they have killed Teddy and +Hugh.... + +"They have killed millions. Millions--who had fathers and mothers and +wives and sweethearts...." + + +Section 8 + +"Somehow I can't talk about this to Edith. It is ridiculous, I know. But +in some way I can't.... It isn't fair to her. If I could, I would.... +Quite soon after we were married I ceased to talk to her. I mean talking +really and simply--as I do to you. And it's never come back. I don't +know why.... And particularly I can't talk to her of Hugh.... Little +things, little shadows of criticism, but enough to make it +impossible.... And I go about thinking about Hugh, and what has happened +to him sometimes... as though I was stifling." + +Letty compared her case. + +"I don't want to talk about Teddy--not a word." + +"That's queer.... But perhaps--a son is different. Now I come to think +of it--I've never talked of Mary.... Not to any one ever. I've never +thought of that before. But I haven't. I couldn't. No. Losing a lover, +that's a thing for oneself. I've been through that, you see. But a +son's more outside you. Altogether. And more your own making. It's not +losing a thing _in_ you; it's losing a hope and a pride.... Once when I +was a little boy I did a drawing very carefully. It took me a long +time.... And a big boy tore it up. For no particular reason. Just out of +cruelty.... That--that was exactly like losing Hugh...." + +Letty reflected. + +"No," she confessed, "I'm more selfish than that." + +"It isn't selfish," said Mr. Britling. "But it's a different thing. It's +less intimate, and more personally important." + +"I have just thought, 'He's gone. He's gone.' Sometimes, do you know, I +have felt quite angry with him. Why need he have gone--so soon?" + +Mr. Britling nodded understandingly. + +"I'm not angry. I'm not depressed. I'm just bitterly hurt by the ending +of something I had hoped to watch--always--all my life," he said. "I +don't know how it is between most fathers and sons, but I admired Hugh. +I found exquisite things in him. I doubt if other people saw them. He +was quiet. He seemed clumsy. But he had an extraordinary fineness. He +was a creature of the most delicate and rapid responses.... These aren't +my fond delusions. It was so.... You know, when he was only a few days +old, he would start suddenly at any strange sound. He was alive like an +AEolian harp from the very beginning.... And his hair when he was +born--he had a lot of hair--was like the down on the breast of a bird. I +remember that now very vividly--and how I used to like to pass my hand +over it. It was silk, spun silk. Before he was two he could talk--whole +sentences. He had the subtlest ear. He loved long words.... And then," +he said with tears in his voice, "all this beautiful fine structure, +this brain, this fresh life as nimble as water--as elastic as a steel +spring, it is destroyed.... + +"I don't make out he wasn't human. Often and often I have been angry +with him, and disappointed in him. There were all sorts of weaknesses in +him. We all knew them. And we didn't mind them. We loved him the better. +And his odd queer cleverness!.... And his profound wisdom. And then all +this beautiful and delicate fabric, all those clear memories in his dear +brain, all his whims, his sudden inventions.... + +"You know, I have had a letter from his chum Park. He was shot through a +loophole. The bullet went through his eye and brow.... Think of it! + +"An amazement ... a blow ... a splattering of blood. Rags of tormented +skin and brain stuff.... In a moment. What had taken eighteen +years--love and care...." + +He sat thinking for an interval, and then went on, "The reading and +writing alone! I taught him to read myself--because his first governess, +you see, wasn't very clever. She was a very good methodical sort, but +she had no inspiration. So I got up all sorts of methods for teaching +him to read. But it wasn't necessary. He seemed to leap all sorts of +difficulties. He leapt to what one was trying to teach him. It was as +quick as the movement of some wild animal.... + +"He came into life as bright and quick as this robin looking for +food.... + +"And he's broken up and thrown away.... Like a cartridge case by the +side of a covert...." + +He choked and stopped speaking. His elbows were on his knees, and he put +his face between his hands and shuddered and became still. His hair was +troubled. The end of his stumpy moustache and a little roll of flesh +stood out at the side of his hand, and made him somehow twice as +pitiful. His big atlas, from which papers projected, seemed forgotten by +his side. So he sat for a long time, and neither he nor Letty moved or +spoke. But they were in the same shadow. They found great comfort in +one another. They had not been so comforted before since their losses +came upon them. + + +Section 9 + +It was Mr. Britling who broke silence. And when he drew his hands down +from his face and spoke, he said one of the most amazing and unexpected +things she had ever heard in her life. + +"The only possible government in Albania," he said, looking steadfastly +before him down the hill-side, "is a group of republican cantons after +the Swiss pattern. I can see no other solution that is not offensive to +God. It does not matter in the least what we owe to Serbia or what we +owe to Italy. We have got to set this world on a different footing. We +have got to set up the world at last--on justice and reason." + +Then, after a pause, "The Treaty of Bucharest was an evil treaty. It +must be undone. Whatever this German King of Bulgaria does, that treaty +must be undone and the Bulgarians united again into one people. They +must have themselves, whatever punishment they deserve, they must have +nothing more, whatever reward they win." + +She could not believe her ears. + +"After this precious blood, after this precious blood, if we leave one +plot of wickedness or cruelty in the world--" + +And therewith he began to lecture Letty on the importance of +international politics--to every one. How he and she and every one must +understand, however hard it was to understand. + +"No life is safe, no happiness is safe, there is no chance of bettering +life until we have made an end to all that causes war.... + +"We have to put an end to the folly and vanity of kings, and to any +people ruling any people but themselves. There is no convenience, there +is no justice in any people ruling any people but themselves; the ruling +of men by others, who have not their creeds and their languages and +their ignorances and prejudices, that is the fundamental folly that has +killed Teddy and Hugh--and these millions. To end that folly is as much +our duty and business as telling the truth or earning a living...." + +"But how can you alter it?" + +He held out a finger at her. "Men may alter anything if they have motive +enough and faith enough." + +He indicated the atlas beside him. + +"Here I am planning the real map of the world," he said. "Every sort of +district that has a character of its own must have its own rule; and the +great republic of the united states of the world must keep the federal +peace between them all. That's the plain sense of life; the federal +world-republic. Why do we bother ourselves with loyalties to any other +government but that? It needs only that sufficient men should say it, +and that republic would be here now. Why have we loitered so long--until +these tragic punishments come? We have to map the world out into its +states, and plan its government and the way of its tolerations." + +"And you think it will come?" + +"It will come." + +"And you believe that men will listen to such schemes?" said Letty. + +Mr. Britling, with his eyes far away over the hills, seemed to think. +"Yes," he said. "Not perhaps to-day--not steadily. But kings and empires +die; great ideas, once they are born, can never die again. In the end +this world-republic, this sane government of the world, is as certain as +the sunset. Only...." + +He sighed, and turned over a page of his atlas blindly. + +"Only we want it soon. The world is weary of this bloodshed, weary of +all this weeping, of this wasting of substance and this killing of sons +and lovers. We want it soon, and to have it soon we must work to bring +it about. We must give our lives. What is left of our lives.... + +"That is what you and I must do, Letty. What else is there left for us +to do?... I will write of nothing else, I will think of nothing else now +but of safety and order. So that all these dear dead--not one of them +but will have brought the great days of peace and man's real beginning +nearer, and these cruel things that make men whimper like children, that +break down bright lives into despair and kill youth at the very moment +when it puts out its clean hands to take hold of life--these cruelties, +these abominations of confusion, shall cease from the earth forever." + + +Section 10 + +Letty regarded him, frowning, and with her chin between her fists.... + +"But do you really believe," said Letty, "that things can be better than +they are?" + +"But--_Yes!_" said Mr. Britling. + +"I don't," said Letty. "The world is cruel. It is just cruel. So it will +always be." + +"It need not be cruel," said Mr. Britling. + +"It is just a place of cruel things. It is all set with knives. It is +full of diseases and accidents. As for God--either there is no God or he +is an idiot. He is a slobbering idiot. He is like some idiot who pulls +off the wings of flies." + +"No," said Mr. Britling. + +"There is no progress. Nothing gets better. How can _you_ believe in God +after Hugh? _Do_ you believe in God?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Britling after a long pause; "I do believe in God." + +"Who lets these things happen!" She raised herself on her arm and thrust +her argument at him with her hand. "Who kills my Teddy and your +Hugh--and millions." + +"No," said Mr. Britling. + +"But he _must_ let these things happen. Or why do they happen?" + +"No," said Mr. Britling. "It is the theologians who must answer that. +They have been extravagant about God. They have had silly absolute +ideas--that He is all powerful. That He's omni-everything. But the +common sense of men knows better. Every real religious thought denies +it. After all, the real God of the Christians is Christ, not God +Almighty; a poor mocked and wounded God nailed on a cross of matter.... +Some day He will triumph.... But it is not fair to say that He causes +all things now. It is not fair to make out a case against him. You have +been misled. It is a theologian's folly. God is not absolute; God is +finite.... A finite God who struggles in his great and comprehensive way +as we struggle in our weak and silly way--who is _with_ us--that is the +essence of all real religion.... I agree with you so--Why! if I thought +there was an omnipotent God who looked down on battles and deaths and +all the waste and horror of this war--able to prevent these +things--doing them to amuse Himself--I would spit in his empty face...." + +"Any one would...." + +"But it's your teachers and catechisms have set you against God.... They +want to make out He owns all Nature. And all sorts of silly claims. Like +the heralds in the Middle Ages who insisted that Christ was certainly a +great gentleman entitled to bear arms. But God is within Nature and +necessity. Necessity is a thing beyond God--beyond good and ill, beyond +space and time, a mystery everlastingly impenetrable. God is nearer than +that. Necessity is the uttermost thing, but God is the innermost thing. +Closer He is than breathing and nearer than hands and feet. He is the +Other Thing than this world. Greater than Nature or Necessity, for he is +a spirit and they are blind, but not controlling them.... Not yet...." + +"They always told me He was the maker of Heaven and Earth." + +"That's the Jew God the Christians took over. It's a Quack God, a +Panacea. It's not my God." + +Letty considered these strange ideas. + +"I never thought of Him like that," she said at last. "It makes it all +seem different." + +"Nor did I. But I do now.... I have suddenly found it and seen it plain. +I see it so plain that I am amazed that I have not always seen it.... It +is, you see, so easy to understand that there is a God, and how complex +and wonderful and brotherly He is, when one thinks of those dear boys +who by the thousand, by the hundred thousand, have laid down their +lives.... Ay, and there were German boys too who did the same.... The +cruelties, the injustice, the brute aggression--they saw it differently. +They laid down their lives--they laid down their lives.... Those dear +lives, those lives of hope and sunshine.... + +"Don't you see that it must be like that, Letty? Don't you see that it +must be like that?" + +"No," she said, "I've seen things differently from that." + +"But it's so plain to me," said Mr. Britling. "If there was nothing else +in all the world but our kindness for each other, or the love that made +you weep in this kind October sunshine, or the love I bear Hugh--if +there was nothing else at all--if everything else was cruelty and +mockery and filthiness and bitterness, it would still be certain that +there was a God of love and righteousness. If there were no signs of God +in all the world but the godliness we have seen in those two boys of +ours; if we had no other light but the love we have between us.... + +"You don't mind if I talk like this?" said Mr. Britling. "It's all I can +think of now--this God, this God who struggles, who was in Hugh and +Teddy, clear and plain, and how He must become the ruler of the +world...." + +"This God who struggles," she repeated. "I have never thought of Him +like that." + +"Of course He must be like that," said Mr. Britling. "How can God be a +Person; how can He be anything that matters to man, unless He is limited +and defined and--human like ourselves.... With things outside Him and +beyond Him." + + +Section 11 + +Letty walked back slowly through the fields of stubble to her cottage. + +She had been talking to Mr. Britling for an hour, and her mind was full +of the thought of this changed and simplified man, who talked of God as +he might have done of a bird he had seen or of a tree he had sheltered +under. And all mixed up with this thought of Mr. Britling was this +strange idea of God who was also a limited person, who could come as +close as Teddy, whispering love in the darkness. She had a ridiculous +feeling that God really struggled like Mr. Britling, and that with only +some indefinable inferiority of outlook Mr. Britling loved like God. She +loved him for his maps and his dreams and the bareness of his talk to +her. It was strange how the straining thought of the dead Teddy had +passed now out of her mind. She was possessed by a sense of ending and +beginning, as though a page had turned over in her life and everything +was new. She had never given religion any thought but contemptuous +thought for some years, since indeed her growing intelligence had +dismissed it as a scheme of inexcusable restraints and empty pretences, +a thing of discords where there were no discords except of its making. +She had been a happy Atheist. She had played in the sunshine, a natural +creature with the completest confidence in the essential goodness of the +world in which she found herself. She had refused all thought of +painful and disagreeable things. Until the bloody paw of war had wiped +out all her assurance. Teddy, the playmate, was over, the love game was +ended for ever; the fresh happy acceptance of life as life; and in the +place of Teddy was the sorrow of life, the pity of life, and this coming +of God out of utter remoteness into a conceivable relation to her own +existence. + +She had left Mr. Britling to his atlas. He lay prone under the hedge +with it spread before him. His occupation would have seemed to her only +a little while ago the absurdest imaginable. He was drawing boundaries +on his maps very carefully in red ink, with a fountain pen. But now she +understood. + +She knew that those red ink lines of Mr. Britling's might in the end +prove wiser and stronger than the bargains of the diplomats.... + +In the last hour he had come very near to her. She found herself full of +an unwonted affection for him. She had never troubled her head about her +relations with any one except Teddy before. Now suddenly she seemed to +be opening out to all the world for kindness. This new idea of a +friendly God, who had a struggle of his own, who could be thought of as +kindred to Mr. Britling, as kindred to Teddy--had gripped her +imagination. He was behind the autumnal sunshine; he was in the little +bird that had seemed so confident and friendly. Whatever was kind, +whatever was tender; there was God. And a thousand old phrases she had +read and heard and given little heed to, that had lain like dry bones in +her memory, suddenly were clothed in flesh and became alive. This +God--if this was God--then indeed it was not nonsense to say that God +was love, that he was a friend and companion.... With him it might be +possible to face a world in which Teddy and she would never walk side by +side again nor plan any more happiness for ever. After all she had been +very happy; she had had wonderful happiness. She had had far more +happiness, far more love, in her short years or so than most people had +in their whole lives. And so in the reaction of her emotions, Letty, who +had gone out with her head full of murder and revenge, came back through +the sunset thinking of pity, of the thousand kindnesses and tendernesses +of Teddy that were, after all, perhaps only an intimation of the +limitless kindnesses and tendernesses of God.... What right had she to a +white and bitter grief, self-centred and vindictive, while old Britling +could still plan an age of mercy in the earth and a red-gold sunlight +that was warm as a smile from Teddy lay on all the world.... + +She must go into the cottage and kiss Cissie, and put away that parcel +out of sight until she could find some poor soldier to whom she could +send it. She had been pitiless towards Cissie in her grief. She had, in +the egotism of her sorrow, treated Cissie as she might have treated a +chair or a table, with no thought that Cissie might be weary, might +dream of happiness still to come. Cissie had still to play the lover, +and her man was already in khaki. There would be no such year as Letty +had had in the days before the war darkened the world. Before Cissie's +marrying the peace must come, and the peace was still far away. And +Direck too would have to take his chances.... + +Letty came through the little wood and over the stile that brought her +into sight of the cottage. The windows of the cottage as she saw it +under the bough of the big walnut tree, were afire from the sun. The +crimson rambler over the porch that she and Teddy had planted was still +bearing roses. The door was open and people were moving in the porch. + +Some one was coming out of the cottage, a stranger, in an unfamiliar +costume, and behind him was a man in khaki--but that was Mr. Direck! And +behind him again was Cissie. + +But the stranger! + +He came out of the frame of the porch towards the garden gate.... + +Who--who was this stranger? + +It was a man in queer-looking foreign clothes, baggy trousers of some +soft-looking blue stuff and a blouse, and he had a white-bandaged left +arm. He had a hat stuck at the back of his head, and a beard.... + +He was entirely a stranger, a foreigner. Was she going insane? Of course +he was a stranger! + +And then he moved a step, he made a queer sideways pace, a caper, on the +path, and instantly he ceased to be strange and foreign. He became +amazingly, incredibly, familiar by virtue of that step.... + +_No!_ + +Her breath stopped. All Letty's being seemed to stop. And this stranger +who was also incredibly familiar, after he had stared at her motionless +form for a moment, waved his hat with a gesture--a gesture that crowned +and scaled the effect of familiarity. She gave no sign in reply. + +No, that familiarity was just a mad freakishness in things. + +This strange man came from Belgium perhaps, to tell something about +Teddy.... + +And then she surprised herself by making a groaning noise, an absurd +silly noise, just like the noise when one imitates a cow to a child. She +said "Mooo-oo." + +And she began to run forward, with legs that seemed misfits, waving her +hands about, and as she ran she saw more and more certainly that this +wounded man in strange clothing was Teddy. She ran faster and still +faster, stumbling and nearly falling. If she did not get to him speedily +the world would burst. + +To hold him, to hold close to him!... + +"Letty! Letty! Just one arm...." + +She was clinging to him and he was holding her.... + +It was all right. She had always known it was all right. (Hold close to +him.) Except just for a little while. But that had been foolishness. +Hadn't she always known he was alive? And here he was alive! (Hold close +to him.) Only it was so good to be sure--after all her torment; to hold +him, to hang about him, to feel the solid man, kissing her, weeping too, +weeping together with her. "Teddy my love!" + + +Section 12 + +Letty was in the cottage struggling to hear and understand things too +complicated for her emotion-crowded mind. There was something that Mr. +Direck was trying to explain about a delayed telegram that had come soon +after she had gone out. There was much indeed that Mr. Direck was trying +to explain. What did any explanation really matter when you had Teddy, +with nothing but a strange beard and a bandaged arm between him and +yourself? She had an absurd persuasion at first that those two +strangenesses would also presently be set aside, so that Teddy would +become just exactly what Teddy had always been. + +Teddy had been shot through the upper arm.... + +"My hand has gone, dear little Letty. It's my left hand, luckily. I +shall have to wear a hook like some old pirate...." + +There was something about his being taken prisoner. "That other +officer"--that was Mr. Direck's officer--"had been lying there for +days." Teddy had been shot through the upper arm, and stunned by a +falling beam. When he came to he was disarmed, with a German standing +over him.... + +Then afterwards he had escaped. In quite a little time he had escaped. +He had been in a railway station somewhere in Belgium; locked in a +waiting-room with three or four French prisoners, and the junction had +been bombed by French and British aeroplanes. Their guard and two of the +prisoners had been killed. In the confusion the others had got away into +the town. There were trucks of hay on fire, and a store of petrol was +in danger. "After that one was bound to escape. One would have been shot +if one had been found wandering about." + +The bomb had driven some splinters of glass and corrugated iron into +Teddy's wrist; it seemed a small place at first; it didn't trouble him +for weeks. But then some dirt got into it. + +In the narrow cobbled street beyond the station he had happened upon a +woman who knew no English, but who took him to a priest, and the priest +had hidden him. + +Letty did not piece together the whole story at first. She did not want +the story very much; she wanted to know about this hand and arm. + +There would be queer things in the story when it came to be told. There +was an old peasant who had made Teddy work in his fields in spite of his +smashed and aching arm, and who had pointed to a passing German when +Teddy demurred; there were the people called "they" who had at that time +organised the escape of stragglers into Holland. There was the night +watch, those long nights in succession before the dash for liberty. But +Letty's concern was all with the hand. Inside the sling there was +something that hurt the imagination, something bandaged, a stump. She +could not think of it. She could not get away from the thought of it. + +"But why did you lose your hand?" + +It was only a little place at first, and then it got painful.... + +"But I didn't go into a hospital because I was afraid they would intern +me, and so I wouldn't be able to come home. And I was dying to come +home. I was--homesick. No one was ever so homesick. I've thought of this +place and the garden, and how one looked out of the window at the +passers-by, a thousand times. I seemed always to be seeing them. Old +Dimple with his benevolent smile, and Mrs. Wolker at the end cottage, +and how she used to fetch her beer and wink when she caught us looking +at her, and little Charlie Slobberface sniffing on his way to the pigs +and all the rest of them. And you, Letty. Particularly you. And how we +used to lean on the window-sill with our shoulders touching, and your +cheek just in front of my eyes.... And nothing aching at all in one.... + +"How I thought of that and longed for that!... + +"And so, you see, I didn't go to the hospital. I kept hoping to get to +England first. And I left it too long...." + +"Life's come back to me with you!" said Letty. "Until just to-day I've +believed you'd come back. And to-day--I doubted.... I thought it was all +over--all the real life, love and the dear fun of things, and that there +was nothing before me, nothing before me but just holding out--and +keeping your memory.... Poor arm. Poor arm. And being kind to people. +And pretending you were alive somewhere.... I'll not care about the arm. +In a little while.... I'm glad you've gone, but I'm gladder you're back +and can never go again.... And I will be your right hand, dear, and your +left hand and all your hands. Both my hands for your dear lost left one. +You shall have three hands instead of two...." + + +Section 13 + +Letty stood by the window as close as she could to Teddy in a world that +seemed wholly made up of unexpected things. She could not heed the +others, it was only when Teddy spoke to the others, or when they spoke +to Teddy, that they existed for her. + +For instance, Teddy was presently talking to Mr. Direck. + +They had spoken about the Canadians who had come up and relieved the +Essex men after the fight in which Teddy had been captured. And then it +was manifest that Mr. Direck was talking of his regiment. "I'm not the +only American who has gone Canadian--for the duration of the war." + +He had got to his explanation at last. + +"I've told a lie," he said triumphantly. "I've shifted my birthplace six +hundred miles. + +"Mind you, I don't admit a thing that Cissie has ever said about +America--not one thing. You don't understand the sort of proposition +America is up against. America is the New World, where there are no +races and nations any more; she is the Melting Pot, from which we will +cast the better state. I've believed that always--in spite of a thousand +little things I believe it now. I go back on nothing. I'm not fighting +as an American either. I'm fighting simply as myself.... I'm not going +fighting for England, mind you. Don't you fancy that. I don't know I'm +so particularly in love with a lot of English ways as to do that. I +don't see how any one can be very much in love with your Empire, with +its dead-alive Court, its artful politicians, its lords and ladies and +snobs, its way with the Irish and its way with India, and everybody +shifting responsibility and telling lies about your common people. I'm +not going fighting for England. I'm going fighting for Cissie--and +justice and Belgium and all that--but more particularly for Cissie. And +anyhow I can't look Pa Britling in the face any more.... And I want to +see those trenches--close. I reckon they're a thing it will be +interesting to talk about some day.... So I'm going," said Mr. Direck. +"But chiefly--it's Cissie. See?" + +Cissie had come and stood by the side of him. + +She looked from poor broken Teddy to him and back again. + +"Up to now," she said, "I've wanted you to go...." + +Tears came into her eyes. + +"I suppose I must let you go," she said. "Oh! I'd hate you not to +go...." + + +Section 14 + +"Good God! how old the Master looks!" cried Teddy suddenly. + +He was standing at the window, and as Mr. Direck came forward +inquiringly he pointed to the figure of Mr. Britling passing along the +road towards the Dower House. + +"He does look old. I hadn't noticed," said Mr. Direck. + +"Why, he's gone grey!" cried Teddy, peering. "He wasn't grey when I +left." + +They watched the knickerbockered figure of Mr. Britling receding up the +hill, atlas and papers in his hands behind his back. + +"I must go out to him," said Teddy, disengaging himself from Letty. + +"No," she said, arresting him with her hand. + +"But he will be glad--" + +She stood in her husband's way. She had a vision of Mr. Britling +suddenly called out of his dreams of God ruling the united states of the +world, to rejoice at Teddy's restoration.... + +"No," she said; "it will only make him think again of Hugh--and how he +died. Don't go out, Teddy. Not now. What does he care for _you_?... Let +him rest from such things.... Leave him to dream over his atlas.... He +isn't so desolate--if you knew.... I will tell you, Teddy--when I +can.... + +"But just now--No, he will think of Hugh again.... Let him go.... He has +God and his atlas there.... They're more than you think." + + + + +CHAPTER THE SECOND + +MR. BRITLING WRITES UNTIL SUNRISE + + +Section 1 + +It was some weeks later. It was now the middle of November, and Mr. +Britling, very warmly wrapped in his thick dressing-gown and his thick +llama wool pyjamas, was sitting at his night desk, and working ever and +again at an essay, an essay of preposterous ambitions, for the title of +it was "The Better Government of the World." + +Latterly he had had much sleepless misery. In the day life was +tolerable, but in the night--unless he defended himself by working, the +losses and cruelties of the war came and grimaced at him, insufferably. +Now he would be haunted by long processions of refugees, now he would +think of the dead lying stiff and twisted in a thousand dreadful +attitudes. Then again he would be overwhelmed with anticipations of the +frightful economic and social dissolution that might lie ahead.... At +other times he thought of wounds and the deformities of body and spirit +produced by injuries. And sometimes he would think of the triumph of +evil. Stupid and triumphant persons went about a world that stupidity +had desolated, with swaggering gestures, with a smiling consciousness of +enhanced importance, with their scornful hatred of all measured and +temperate and kindly things turned now to scornful contempt. And +mingling with the soil they walked on lay the dead body of Hugh, face +downward. At the back of the boy's head, rimmed by blood-stiffened +hair--the hair that had once been "as soft as the down of a bird"--was a +big red hole. That hole was always pitilessly distinct. They stepped on +him--heedlessly. They heeled the scattered stuff of his exquisite brain +into the clay.... + +From all such moods of horror Mr. Britling's circle of lamplight was his +sole refuge. His work could conjure up visions, like opium visions, of a +world of order and justice. Amidst the gloom of world bankruptcy he +stuck to the prospectus of a braver enterprise--reckless of his chances +of subscribers.... + + +Section 2 + +But this night even this circle of lamplight would not hold his mind. +Doubt had crept into this last fastness. He pulled the papers towards +him, and turned over the portion he had planned. + +His purpose in the book he was beginning to write was to reason out the +possible methods of government that would give a stabler, saner control +to the world. He believed still in democracy, but he was realising more +and more that democracy had yet to discover its method. It had to take +hold of the consciences of men, it had to equip itself with still +unformed organisations. Endless years of patient thinking, of +experimenting, of discussion lay before mankind ere this great idea +could become reality, and right, the proven right thing, could rule the +earth. + +Meanwhile the world must still remain a scene of blood-stained +melodrama, of deafening noise, contagious follies, vast irrational +destructions. One fine life after another went down from study and +university and laboratory to be slain and silenced.... + +Was it conceivable that this mad monster of mankind would ever be caught +and held in the thin-spun webs of thought? + +Was it, after all, anything but pretension and folly for a man to work +out plans for the better government of the world?--was it any better +than the ambitious scheming of some fly upon the wheel of the romantic +gods? + +Man has come, floundering and wounding and suffering, out of the +breeding darknesses of Time, that will presently crush and consume him +again. Why not flounder with the rest, why not eat, drink, fight, +scream, weep and pray, forget Hugh, stop brooding upon Hugh, banish all +these priggish dreams of "The Better Government of the World," and turn +to the brighter aspects, the funny and adventurous aspects of the war, +the Chestertonian jolliness, _Punch_ side of things? Think you because +your sons are dead that there will be no more cakes and ale? Let mankind +blunder out of the mud and blood as mankind has blundered in.... + +Let us at any rate keep our precious Sense of Humour.... + +He pulled his manuscript towards him. For a time he sat decorating the +lettering of his title, "The Better Government of the World," with +little grinning gnomes' heads and waggish tails.... + + +Section 3 + +On the top of Mr. Britling's desk, beside the clock, lay a letter, +written in clumsy English and with its envelope resealed by a label +which testified that it had been "OPENED BY CENSOR." + +The friendly go-between in Norway had written to tell Mr. Britling that +Herr Heinrich also was dead; he had died a wounded prisoner in Russia +some months ago. He had been wounded and captured, after undergoing +great hardships, during the great Russian attack upon the passes of the +Carpathians in the early spring, and his wound had mortified. He had +recovered partially for a time, and then he had been beaten and injured +again in some struggle between German and Croatian prisoners, and he had +sickened and died. Before he died he had written to his parents, and +once again he had asked that the fiddle he had left in Mr. Britling's +care should if possible be returned to them. It was manifest that both +for him and them now it had become a symbol with many associations. + +The substance of this letter invaded the orange circle of the lamp; it +would have to be answered, and the potentialities of the answer were +running through Mr. Britling's brain to the exclusion of any impersonal +composition. He thought of the old parents away there in Pomerania--he +believed but he was not quite sure, that Heinrich had been an only +son--and of the pleasant spectacled figure that had now become a broken +and decaying thing in a prisoner's shallow grave.... + +Another son had gone--all the world was losing its sons.... + +He found himself thinking of young Heinrich in the very manner, if with +a lesser intensity, in which he thought about his own son, as of hopes +senselessly destroyed. His mind took no note of the fact that Heinrich +was an enemy, that by the reckoning of a "war of attrition" his death +was balance and compensation for the death of Hugh. He went straight to +the root fact that they had been gallant and kindly beings, and that the +same thing had killed them both.... + +By no conceivable mental gymnastics could he think of the two as +antagonists. Between them there was no imaginable issue. They had both +very much the same scientific disposition; with perhaps more dash and +inspiration in the quality of Hugh; more docility and method in the case +of Karl. Until war had smashed them one against the other.... + +He recalled his first sight of Heinrich at the junction, and how he had +laughed at the sight of his excessive Teutonism. The close-cropped +shining fair head surmounted by a yellowish-white corps cap had appeared +dodging about among the people upon the platform, and manifestly asking +questions. The face had been very pink with the effort of an +unaccustomed tongue. The young man had been clad in a suit of white +flannel refined by a purple line; his boots were of that greenish yellow +leather that only a German student could esteem "chic"; his rucksack +was upon his back, and the precious fiddle in its case was carried very +carefully in one hand; this same dead fiddle. The other hand held a +stick with a carved knob and a pointed end. He had been too German for +belief. "Herr Heinrich!" Mr. Britling had said, and straightway the +heels had clashed together for a bow, a bow from the waist, a bow that a +heedless old lady much burthened with garden produce had greatly +disarranged. From first to last amidst our off-hand English ways Herr +Heinrich had kept his bow--and always it had been getting disarranged. + +That had been his constant effect; a little stiff, a little absurd, and +always clean and pink and methodical. The boys had liked him without +reserve, Mrs. Britling had liked him; everybody had found him a likeable +creature. He never complained of anything except picnics. But he did +object to picnics; to the sudden departure of the family to wild +surroundings for the consumption of cold, knifeless and forkless meals +in the serious middle hours of the day. He protested to Mr. Britling, +respectfully but very firmly. It was, he held, implicit in their +understanding that he should have a cooked meal in the middle of the +day. Otherwise his Magen was perplexed and disordered. In the evening he +could not eat with any gravity or profit.... + +Their disposition towards under-feeding and a certain lack of fine +sentiment were the only flaws in the English scheme that Herr Heinrich +admitted. He certainly found the English unfeeling. His heart went even +less satisfied than his Magen. He was a being of expressive affections; +he wanted great friendships, mysterious relationships, love. He tried +very bravely to revere and to understand and be occultly understood by +Mr. Britling; he sought long walks and deep talks with Hugh and the +small boys; he tried to fill his heart with Cissie; he found at last +marvels of innocence and sweetness in the Hickson girl. She wore her +hair in a pigtail when first he met her, and it made her almost +Marguerite. This young man had cried aloud for love, warm and filling, +like the Mittagsessen that was implicit in their understanding. And all +these Essex people failed to satisfy him; they were silent, they were +subtle, they slipped through the fat yet eager fingers of his heart, so +that he fell back at last upon himself and his German correspondents and +the idealisation of Maud Hickson and the moral education of Billy. +Billy. Mr. Britling's memories came back at last to the figure of young +Heinrich with the squirrel on his shoulder, that had so often stood in +the way of the utter condemnation of Germany. That, seen closely, was +the stuff of one brutal Prussian. What quarrel had we with him?... + +Other memories of Heinrich flitted across Mr. Britling's reverie. +Heinrich at hockey, running with extreme swiftness and little skill, +tricked and baffled by Letty, dodged by Hugh, going headlong forward and +headlong back, and then with a cry flinging himself flat on the ground +exhausted.... Or again Heinrich very grave and very pink, peering +through his glasses at his cards at Skat.... Or Heinrich in the boats +upon the great pond, or Heinrich swimming, or Heinrich hiding very, very +artfully from the boys about the garden on a theory of his own, or +Heinrich in strange postures, stalking the deer in Claverings Park. For +a time he had had a great ambition to creep quite close to a deer and +_touch_ it.... Or Heinrich indexing. He had a passion for listing and +indexing books, music, any loose classifiable thing. His favourite +amusement was devising schemes for the indentation of dictionary leaves, +so that one could turn instantly to the needed word. He had bought and +cut the edges of three dictionaries; each in succession improved upon +the other; he had had great hopes of patents and wealth arising +therefrom.... And his room had been a source of strange sounds; his +search for music upon the violin. He had hoped when he came to +Matching's Easy to join "some string quartette." But Matching's Easy +produced no string quartette. He had to fall back upon the pianola, and +try to play duets with that. Only the pianola did all the duet itself, +and in the hands of a small Britling was apt to betray a facetious +moodiness; sudden alternations between extreme haste and extreme +lassitude.... + +Then there came a memory of Heinrich talking very seriously; his glasses +magnifying his round blue eyes, talking of his ideas about life, of his +beliefs and disbeliefs, of his ambitions and prospects in life. + +He confessed two principal ambitions. They varied perhaps in their +absolute dimensions, but they were of equal importance in his mind. The +first of these was, so soon as he had taken his doctorate in philology, +to give himself to the perfecting of an International Language; it was +to combine all the virtues of Esperanto and Ido. "And then," said Herr +Heinrich, "I do not think there will be any more wars--ever." The second +ambition, which was important first because Herr Heinrich found much +delight in working at it, and secondly because he thought it would give +him great wealth and opportunity for propagating the perfect speech, was +the elaboration of his system of marginal indentations for dictionaries +and alphabetical books of reference of all sorts. It was to be so +complete that one would just stand over the book to be consulted, run +hand and eye over its edges and open the book--"at the very exact spot." +He proposed to follow this business up with a quite Germanic +thoroughness. "Presently," he said, "I must study the machinery by which +the edges of books are cut. It is possible I may have to invent these +also." This was the double-barrelled scheme of Herr Heinrich's career. +And along it he was to go, and incidentally develop his large vague +heart that was at present so manifestly unsatisfied.... + +Such was the brief story of Herr Heinrich. + +That story was over--just as Hugh's story was over. That first volume +would never now have a second and a third. It ended in some hasty grave +in Russia. The great scheme for marginal indices would never be +patented, the duets with the pianola would never be played again. + +Imagination glimpsed a little figure toiling manfully through the slush +and snow of the Carpathians; saw it staggering under its first +experience of shell fire; set it amidst attacks and flights and fatigue +and hunger and a rush perhaps in the darkness; guessed at the wounding +blow. Then came the pitiful pilgrimage of the prisoners into captivity, +captivity in a land desolated, impoverished and embittered. Came wounds +wrapped in filthy rags, pain and want of occupation, and a poor little +bent and broken Heinrich sitting aloof in a crowded compound nursing a +mortifying wound.... + +He used always to sit in a peculiar attitude with his arms crossed on +his crossed legs, looking slantingly through his glasses.... + +So he must have sat, and presently he lay on some rough bedding and +suffered, untended, in infinite discomfort; lay motionless and thought +at times, it may be, of Matching's Easy and wondered what Hugh and Teddy +were doing. Then he became fevered, and the world grew bright-coloured +and fantastic and ugly for him. Until one day an infinite weakness laid +hold of him, and his pain grew faint and all his thoughts and memories +grew faint--and still fainter.... + +The violin had been brought into Mr. Britling's study that afternoon, +and lay upon the further window-seat. Poor little broken sherd, poor +little fragment of a shattered life! It looked in its case like a baby +in a coffin. + +"I must write a letter to the old father and mother," Mr. Britling +thought. "I can't just send the poor little fiddle--without a word. In +all this pitiful storm of witless hate--surely there may be one +greeting--not hateful. + +"From my blackness to yours," said Mr. Britling aloud. He would have to +write it in English. But even if they knew no English some one would be +found to translate it to them. He would have to write very plainly. + + +Section 4 + +He pushed aside the manuscript of "The Better Government of the World," +and began to write rather slowly, shaping his letters roundly and +distinctly: + + + _Dear Sir,_ + + _I am writing this letter to you to tell you I am sending back the + few little things I had kept for your son at his request when the + war broke out. I am sending them--_ + +Mr. Britling left that blank for the time until he could arrange the +method of sending to the Norwegian intermediary. + + _Especially I am sending his violin, which he had asked me thrice to + convey to you. Either it is a gift from you or it symbolised many + things for him that he connected with home and you. I will have it + packed with particular care, and I will do all in my power to ensure + its safe arrival._ + + _I want to tell you that all the stress and passion of this war has + not made us here in Matching's Easy forget our friend your son. He + was one of us, he had our affection, he had friends here who are + still his friends. We found him honourable and companionable, and we + share something of your loss. I have got together for you a few + snapshots I chance to possess in which you will see him in the + sunshine, and which will enable you perhaps to picture a little more + definitely than you would otherwise do the life he led here. There + is one particularly that I have marked. Our family is lunching + out-of-doors, and you will see that next to your son is a youngster, + a year or so his junior, who is touching glasses with him. I have + put a cross over his head. He is my eldest son, he was very dear to + me, and he too has been, killed in this war. They are, you see, + smiling very pleasantly at each other._ + +While writing this Mr. Britling had been struck by the thought of the +photographs, and he had taken them out of the little drawer into which +he was accustomed to thrust them. He picked out the ones that showed the +young German, but there were others, bright with sunshine, that were now +charged with acquired significances; there were two showing the children +and Teddy and Hugh and Cissie and Letty doing the goose step, and there +was one of Mr. Van der Pant, smiling at the front door, in Heinrich's +abandoned slippers. There were endless pictures of Teddy also. It is the +happy instinct of the Kodak to refuse those days that are overcast, and +the photographic record of a life is a chain of all its kindlier +aspects. In the drawer above these snapshots there were Hugh's letters +and a miscellany of trivial documents touching on his life. + +Mr. Britling discontinued writing and turned these papers over and +mused. Heinrich's letters and postcards had got in among them, and so +had a letter of Teddy's.... + +The letters reinforced the photographs in their reminder how kind and +pleasant a race mankind can be. Until the wild asses of nationalism came +kicking and slaying amidst them, until suspicion and jostling greed and +malignity poison their minds, until the fools with the high explosives +blow that elemental goodness into shrieks of hate and splashes of blood. +How kindly men are--up to the very instant of their cruelties! His mind +teemed suddenly with little anecdotes and histories of the goodwill of +men breaking through the ill-will of war, of the mutual help of sorely +wounded Germans and English lying together in the mud and darkness +between the trenches, of the fellowship of captors and prisoners, of +the Saxons at Christmas fraternising with the English.... Of that he had +seen photographs in one of the daily papers.... + +His mind came back presently from these wanderings to the task before +him. + +He tried to picture these Heinrich parents. He supposed they were +kindly, civilised people. It was manifest the youngster had come to him +from a well-ordered and gentle-spirited home. But he imagined them--he +could not tell why--as people much older than himself. Perhaps young +Heinrich had on some occasion said they were old people--he could not +remember. And he had a curious impulse too to write to them in phrases +of consolation; as if their loss was more pitiable than his own. He +doubted whether they had the consolation of his sanguine temperament, +whether they could resort as readily as he could to his faith, whether +in Pomerania there was the same consoling possibility of an essay on the +Better Government of the World. He did not think this very clearly, but +that was what was at the back of his mind. He went on writing. + + _If you think that these two boys have both perished, not in some + noble common cause but one against the other in a struggle of + dynasties and boundaries and trade routes and tyrannous + ascendancies, then it seems to me that you must feel as I feel that + this war is the most tragic and dreadful thing that has ever + happened to mankind._ + +He sat thinking for some minutes after he had written that, and when +presently he resumed his writing, a fresh strain of thought was +traceable even in his opening sentence. + + _If you count dead and wounds this is the most dreadful war in + history; for you as for me, it has been almost the extremity of + personal tragedy.... Black sorrow.... But is it the most dreadful + war?_ + + _I do not think it is. I can write to you and tell you that I do + indeed believe that our two sons have died not altogether in vain. + Our pain and anguish may not be wasted--may be necessary. Indeed + they may be necessary. Here am I bereaved and wretched--and I hope. + Never was the fabric of war so black; that I admit. But never was + the black fabric of war so threadbare. At a thousand points the + light is shining through._ + +Mr. Britling's pen stopped. + +There was perfect stillness in the study bedroom. + +"The tinpot style," said Mr. Britling at last in a voice of extreme +bitterness. + +He fell into an extraordinary quarrel with his style. He forgot about +those Pomeranian parents altogether in his exasperation at his own +inexpressiveness, at his incomplete control of these rebel words and +phrases that came trailing each its own associations and suggestions to +hamper his purpose with it. He read over the offending sentence. + +"The point is that it is true," he whispered. "It is exactly what I want +to say."... + +Exactly?... + +His mind stuck on that "exactly."... When one has much to say style is +troublesome. It is as if one fussed with one's uniform before a +battle.... But that is just what one ought to do before a battle.... One +ought to have everything in order.... + +He took a fresh sheet and made three trial beginnings. + + _"War is like a black fabric."_... + + _"War is a curtain of black fabric across the pathway."_ + + _"War is a curtain of dense black fabric across all the hopes and + kindliness of mankind. Yet always it has let through some gleams of + light, and now--I am not dreaming--it grows threadbare, and here and + there and at a thousand points the light is breaking through. We owe + it to all these dear youths--"_ + +His pen stopped again. + +"I must work on a rough draft," said Mr. Britling. + + +Section 5 + +Three hours later Mr. Britling was working by daylight, though his study +lamp was still burning, and his letter to old Heinrich was still no +better than a collection of material for a letter. But the material was +falling roughly into shape, and Mr. Britling's intentions were finding +themselves. It was clear to him now that he was no longer writing as his +limited personal self to those two personal selves grieving, in the old, +large, high-walled, steep-roofed household amidst pine woods, of which +Heinrich had once shown him a picture. He knew them too little for any +such personal address. He was writing, he perceived, not as Mr. Britling +but as an Englishman--that was all he could be to them--and he was +writing to them as Germans; he could apprehend them as nothing more. He +was just England bereaved to Germany bereaved.... + +He was no longer writing to the particular parents of one particular +boy, but to all that mass of suffering, regret, bitterness and fatigue +that lay behind the veil of the "front." Slowly, steadily, the manhood +of Germany was being wiped out. As he sat there in the stillness he +could think that at least two million men of the Central Powers were +dead, and an equal number maimed and disabled. Compared with that our +British losses, immense and universal as they were by the standard of +any previous experience, were still slight; our larger armies had still +to suffer, and we had lost irrevocably not very much more than a quarter +of a million. But the tragedy gathered against us. We knew enough +already to know what must be the reality of the German homes to which +those dead men would nevermore return.... + +If England had still the longer account to pay, the French had paid +already nearly to the limits of endurance. They must have lost well over +a million of their mankind, and still they bled and bled. Russia too in +the East had paid far more than man for man in this vast swapping off of +lives. In a little while no Censorship would hold the voice of the +peoples. There would be no more talk of honour and annexations, +hegemonies and trade routes, but only Europe lamenting for her dead.... + +The Germany to which he wrote would be a nation of widows and children, +rather pinched boys and girls, crippled men, old men, deprived men, men +who had lost brothers and cousins and friends and ambitions. No triumph +now on land or sea could save Germany from becoming that. France too +would be that, Russia, and lastly Britain, each in their degree. Before +the war there had been no Germany to which an Englishman could appeal; +Germany had been a threat, a menace, a terrible trampling of armed men. +It was as little possible then to think of talking to Germany as it +would have been to have stopped the Kaiser in mid career in his hooting +car down the Unter den Linden and demand a quiet talk with him. But the +Germany that had watched those rushes with a slightly doubting pride had +her eyes now full of tears and blood. She had believed, she had obeyed, +and no real victory had come. Still she fought on, bleeding, agonising, +wasting her substance and the substance of the whole world, to no +conceivable end but exhaustion, so capable she was, so devoted, so proud +and utterly foolish. And the mind of Germany, whatever it was before the +war, would now be something residual, something left over and sitting +beside a reading-lamp as he was sitting beside a reading-lamp, thinking, +sorrowing, counting the cost, looking into the dark future.... + +And to that he wrote, to that dimly apprehended figure outside a circle +of the light like his own circle of light--which was the father of +Heinrich, which was great Germany, Germany which lived before and which +will yet outlive the flapping of the eagles.... + + _Our boys_, he wrote, _have died, fighting one against the other. + They have been fighting upon an issue so obscure that your German + press is still busy discussing what it was. For us it was that + Belgium was invaded and France in danger of destruction. Nothing + else could have brought the English into the field against you. But + why you invaded Belgium and France and whether that might have been + averted we do not know to this day. And still this war goes on and + still more boys die, and these men who do not fight, these men in + the newspaper offices and in the ministries plan campaigns and + strokes and counter-strokes that belong to no conceivable plan at + all. Except that now for them there is something more terrible than + war. And that is the day of reckoning with their own people._ + + _What have we been fighting for? What are we fighting for? Do you + know? Does any one know? Why am I spending what is left of my + substance and you what is left of yours to keep on this war against + each other? What have we to gain from hurting one another still + further? Why should we be puppets any longer in the hands of crowned + fools and witless diplomatists? Even if we were dumb and acquiescent + before, does not the blood of our sons now cry out to us that this + foolery should cease? We have let these people send our sons to + death._ + + _It is you and I who must stop these wars, these massacres of boys._ + + _Massacres of boys! That indeed is the essence of modern war. The + killing off of the young. It is the destruction of the human + inheritance, it is the spending of all the life and material of the + future upon present-day hate and greed. Fools and knaves, + politicians, tricksters, and those who trade on the suspicions and + thoughtless, generous angers of men, make wars; the indolence and + modesty of the mass of men permit them. Are you and I to suffer such + things until the whole fabric of our civilisation, that has been so + slowly and so laboriously built up, is altogether destroyed?_ + + _When I sat down to write to you I had meant only to write to you of + your son and mine. But I feel that what can be said in particular of + our loss, need not be said; it can be understood without saying. + What needs to be said and written about is this, that war must be + put an end to and that nobody else but you and me and all of us can + do it. We have to do that for the love of our sons and our race and + all that is human. War is no longer human; the chemist and the + metallurgist have changed all that. My boy was shot through the eye; + his brain was blown to pieces by some man who never knew what he had + done. Think what that means!... It is plain to me, surely it is + plain to you and all the world, that war is now a mere putting of + the torch to explosives that flare out to universal ruin. There is + nothing for one sane man to write to another about in these days but + the salvation of mankind from war._ + + _Now I want you to be patient with me and hear me out. There was a + time in the earlier part of this war when it was hard to be patient + because there hung over us the dread of losses and disaster. Now we + need dread no longer. The dreaded thing has happened. Sitting + together as we do in spirit beside the mangled bodies of our dead, + surely we can be as patient as the hills._ + + _I want to tell you quite plainly and simply that I think that + Germany which is chief and central in this war is most to blame for + this war. Writing to you as an Englishman to a German and with war + still being waged, there must be no mistake between us upon this + point. I am persuaded that in the decade that ended with your + overthrow of France in 1871, Germany turned her face towards evil, + and that her refusal to treat France generously and to make friends + with any other great power in the world, is the essential cause of + this war. Germany triumphed--and she trampled on the loser. She + inflicted intolerable indignities. She set herself to prepare for + further aggressions; long before this killing began she was making + war upon land and sea, launching warships, building strategic + railways, setting up a vast establishment of war material, + threatening, straining all the world to keep pace with her + threats.... At last there was no choice before any European nation + but submission to the German will, or war. And it was no will to + which righteous men could possibly submit. It came as an illiberal + and ungracious will. It was the will of Zabern. It is not as if you + had set yourselves to be an imperial people and embrace and unify + the world. You did not want to unify the world. You wanted to set + the foot of an intensely national Germany, a sentimental and + illiberal Germany, a Germany that treasured the portraits of your + ridiculous Kaiser and his litter of sons, a Germany wearing uniform, + reading black letter, and despising every kultur but her own, upon + the neck of a divided and humiliated mankind. It was an intolerable + prospect. I had rather the whole world died._ + + _Forgive me for writing "you." You are as little responsible for + that Germany as I am for--Sir Edward Grey. But this happened over + you; you did not do your utmost to prevent it--even as England has + happened, and I have let it happen over me...._ + +"It is so dry; so general," whispered Mr. Britling. "And yet--it is this +that has killed our sons." + +He sat still for a time, and then went on reading a fresh sheet of his +manuscript. + + _When I bring these charges against Germany I have little + disposition to claim any righteousness for Britain. There has been + small splendour in this war for either Germany or Britain or Russia; + we three have chanced to be the biggest of the combatants, but the + glory lies with invincible France. It is France and Belgium and + Serbia who shine as the heroic lands. They have fought defensively + and beyond all expectation, for dear land and freedom. This war for + them has been a war of simple, definite issues, to which they have + risen with an entire nobility. Englishman and German alike may well + envy them that simplicity. I look to you, as an honest man schooled + by the fierce lessons of this war, to meet me in my passionate + desire to see France, Belgium and Serbia emerge restored from all + this blood and struggle, enlarged to the limits of their + nationality, vindicated and secure. Russia I will not write about + here; let me go on at once to tell you about my own country; + remarking only that between England and Russia there are endless + parallelisms. We have similar complexities, kindred difficulties. We + have for instance an imported dynasty, we have a soul-destroying + State Church which cramps and poisons the education of our ruling + class, we have a people out of touch with a secretive government, + and the same traditional contempt for science. We have our Irelands + and Polands. Even our kings bear a curious likeness...._ + +At this point there was a break in the writing, and Mr. Britling made, +as it were, a fresh beginning. + + _Politically the British Empire is a clumsy collection of strange + accidents. It is a thing as little to be proud of as the outline of + a flint or the shape of a potato. For the mass of English people + India and Egypt and all that side of our system mean less than + nothing; our trade is something they do not understand, our imperial + wealth something they do not share. Britain has been a group of + four democracies caught in the net of a vast yet casual imperialism; + the common man here is in a state of political perplexity from the + cradle to the grave. None the less there is a great people here even + as there is a great people in Russia, a people with a soul and + character of its own, a people of unconquerable kindliness and with + a peculiar genius, which still struggle towards will and expression. + We have been beginning that same great experiment that France and + America and Switzerland and China are making, the experiment of + democracy. It is the newest form of human association, and we are + still but half awake to its needs and necessary conditions. For it + is idle to pretend that the little city democracies of ancient times + were comparable to the great essays in practical republicanism that + mankind is making to-day. This age of the democratic republics that + dawn is a new age. It has not yet lasted for a century, not for a + paltry hundred years.... All new things are weak things; a rat can + kill a man-child with ease; the greater the destiny, the weaker the + immediate self-protection may be. And to me it seems that your + complete and perfect imperialism, ruled by Germans for Germans, is + in its scope and outlook a more antiquated and smaller and less + noble thing than these sprawling emergent giant democracies of the + West that struggle so confusedly against it...._ + + _But that we do struggle confusedly, with pitiful leaders and + infinite waste and endless delay; that it is to our indisciplines + and to the dishonesties and tricks our incompleteness provokes, that + the prolongation of this war is to be ascribed, I readily admit. At + the outbreak of this war I had hoped to see militarism felled within + a year...._ + + +Section 6 + +From this point onward Mr. Britling's notes became more fragmentary. +They had a consecutiveness, but they were discontinuous. His thought had +leapt across gaps that his pen had had no time to fill. And he had +begun to realise that his letter to the old people in Pomerania was +becoming impossible. It had broken away into dissertation. + +"Yet there must be dissertations," he said. "Unless such men as we are +take these things in hand, always we shall be misgoverned, always the +sons will die...." + + +Section 7 + + _I do not think you Germans realise how steadily you were conquering + the world before this war began. Had you given half the energy and + intelligence you have spent upon this war to the peaceful conquest + of men's minds and spirits, I believe that you would have taken the + leadership of the world tranquilly--no man disputing. Your science + was five years, your social and economic organisation was a quarter + of a century in front of ours.... Never has it so lain in the power + of a great people to lead and direct mankind towards the world + republic and universal peace. It needed but a certain generosity of + the imagination...._ + + _But your Junkers, your Imperial court, your foolish vicious + Princes; what were such dreams to them?... With an envious + satisfaction they hurled all the accomplishment of Germany into the + fires of war...._ + + +Section 8 + + _Your boy, as no doubt you know, dreamt constantly of such a world + peace as this that I foreshadow; he was more generous than his + country. He could envisage war and hostility only as + misunderstanding. He thought that a world that could explain itself + clearly would surely be at peace. He was scheming always therefore + for the perfection and propagation of Esperanto or Ido, or some such + universal link. My youngster too was full of a kindred and yet + larger dream, the dream of human science, which knows neither king + nor country nor race_.... + + _These boys, these hopes, this war has killed_.... + +That fragment ended so. Mr. Britling ceased to read for a time. "But has +it killed them?" he whispered.... + +"If you had lived, my dear, you and your England would have talked with +a younger Germany--better than I can ever do...." + +He turned the pages back, and read here and there with an accumulating +discontent. + + +Section 9 + +"Dissertations," said Mr. Britling. + +Never had it been so plain to Mr. Britling that he was a weak, silly, +ill-informed and hasty-minded writer, and never had he felt so +invincible a conviction that the Spirit of God was in him, and that it +fell to him to take some part in the establishment of a new order of +living upon the earth; it might be the most trivial part by the scale of +the task, but for him it was to be now his supreme concern. And it was +an almost intolerable grief to him that his services should be, for all +his desire, so poor in quality, so weak in conception. Always he seemed +to be on the verge of some illuminating and beautiful statement of his +cause; always he was finding his writing inadequate, a thin treachery to +the impulse of his heart, always he was finding his effort weak and +ineffective. In this instance, at the outset he seemed to see with a +golden clearness the message of brotherhood, or forgiveness, of a common +call. To whom could such a message be better addressed than to those +sorrowing parents; from whom could it come with a better effect than +from himself? And now he read what he had made of this message. It +seemed to his jaded mind a pitifully jaded effort. It had no light, it +had no depth. It was like the disquisition of a debating society. + +He was distressed by a fancy of an old German couple, spectacled and +peering, puzzled by his letter. Perhaps they would be obscurely hurt by +his perplexing generalisations. Why, they would ask, should this +Englishman preach to them? + +He sat back in his chair wearily, with his chin sunk upon his chest. For +a time he did not think, and then, he read again the sentence in front +of his eyes. + + _"These boys, these hopes, this war has killed."_ + +The words hung for a time in his mind. + +"No!" said Mr. Britling stoutly. "They live!" + +And suddenly it was borne in upon his mind that he was not alone. There +were thousands and tens of thousands of men and women like himself, +desiring with all their hearts to say, as he desired to say, the +reconciling word. It was not only his hand that thrust against the +obstacles.... Frenchmen and Russians sat in the same stillness, facing +the same perplexities; there were Germans seeking a way through to him. +Even as he sat and wrote. And for the first time clearly he felt a +Presence of which he had thought very many times in the last few weeks, +a Presence so close to him that it was behind his eyes and in his brain +and hands. It was no trick of his vision; it was a feeling of immediate +reality. And it was Hugh, Hugh that he had thought was dead, it was +young Heinrich living also, it was himself, it was those others that +sought, it was all these and it was more, it was the Master, the Captain +of Mankind, it was God, there present with him, and he knew that it was +God. It was as if he had been groping all this time in the darkness, +thinking himself alone amidst rocks and pitfalls and pitiless things, +and suddenly a hand, a firm strong hand, had touched his own. And a +voice within him bade him be of good courage. There was no magic +trickery in that moment; he was still weak and weary, a discouraged +rhetorician, a good intention ill-equipped; but he was no longer lonely +and wretched, no longer in the same world with despair. God was beside +him and within him and about him.... It was the crucial moment of Mr. +Britling's life. It was a thing as light as the passing of a cloud on an +April morning; it was a thing as great as the first day of creation. For +some moments he still sat back with his chin upon his chest and his +hands dropping from the arms of his chair. Then he sat up and drew a +deep breath.... + +This had come almost as a matter of course. + +For weeks his mind had been playing about this idea. He had talked to +Letty of this Finite God, who is the king of man's adventure in space +and time. But hitherto God had been for him a thing of the intelligence, +a theory, a report, something told about but not realised.... Mr. +Britling's thinking about God hitherto had been like some one who has +found an empty house, very beautiful and pleasant, full of the promise +of a fine personality. And then as the discoverer makes his lonely, +curious explorations, he hears downstairs, dear and friendly, the voice +of the Master coming in.... + +There was no need to despair because he himself was one of the feeble +folk. God was with him indeed, and he was with God. The King was coming +to his own. Amidst the darknesses and confusions, the nightmare +cruelties and the hideous stupidities of the great war, God, the Captain +of the World Republic, fought his way to empire. So long as one did +one's best and utmost in a cause so mighty, did it matter though the +thing one did was little and poor? + +"I have thought too much of myself," said Mr. Britling, "and of what I +would do by myself. I have forgotten _that which was with me_...." + + +Section 10 + +He turned over the rest of the night's writing presently, and read it +now as though it was the work of another man. + +These later notes were fragmentary, and written in a sprawling hand. + + _"Let us make ourselves watchers and guardians of the order of the + world...._ + + _"If only for love of our dead...._ + + _"Let us pledge ourselves to service. Let us set ourselves with all + our minds and all our hearts to the perfecting and working out of + the methods of democracy and the ending for ever of the kings and + emperors and priestcrafts and the bands of adventurers, the traders + and owners and forestallers who have betrayed mankind into this + morass of hate and blood--in which our sons are lost--in which we + flounder still...."_ + +How feeble was this squeak of exhortation! It broke into a scolding +note. + +"Who have betrayed," read Mr. Britling, and judged the phrase. + +"Who have fallen with us," he amended.... + +"One gets so angry and bitter--because one feels alone, I suppose. +Because one feels that for them one's reason is no reason. One is +enraged by the sense of their silent and regardless contradiction, and +one forgets the Power of which one is a part...." + +The sheet that bore the sentence he criticised was otherwise blank +except that written across it obliquely in a very careful hand were the +words "Hugh," and "Hugh Philip Britling."... + +On the next sheet he had written: "Let us set up the peace of the World +Republic amidst these ruins. Let it be our religion, our calling." + +There he had stopped. + +The last sheet of Mr. Britling's manuscript may be more conveniently +given in fac-simile than described. + +[Handwritten: + + Hugh + Hugh + My dear Hugh + + Lawyers Princes + Dealers in Contention + + _Honesty_ + + 'Blood Blood ... + + [Transcriber's Note: illegible] an End to them + +] + + +Section 11 + +He sighed. + +He looked at the scattered papers, and thought of the letter they were +to have made. + +His fatigue spoke first. + +"Perhaps after all I'd better just send the fiddle...." + +He rested his cheeks between his hands, and remained so for a long time. +His eyes stared unseeingly. His thoughts wandered and spread and faded. +At length he recalled his mind to that last idea. "Just send the +fiddle--without a word." + +"No. I must write to them plainly. + +"About God as I have found Him. + +"As He has found me...." + +He forgot the Pomeranians for a time. He murmured to himself. He turned +over the conviction that had suddenly become clear and absolute in his +mind. + +"Religion is the first thing and the last thing, and until a man has +found God and been found by God, he begins at no beginning, he works to +no end. He may have his friendships, his partial loyalties, his scraps +of honour. But all these things fall into place and life falls into +place only with God. Only with God. God, who fights through men against +Blind Force and Night and Non-Existence; who is the end, who is the +meaning. He is the only King.... Of course I must write about Him. I +must tell all my world of Him. And before the coming of the true King, +the inevitable King, the King who is present whenever just men +foregather, this blood-stained rubbish of the ancient world, these puny +kings and tawdry emperors, these wily politicians and artful lawyers, +these men who claim and grab and trick and compel, these war makers and +oppressors, will presently shrivel and pass--like paper thrust into a +flame...." + +Then after a time he said: + +"Our sons who have shown us God...." + + +Section 12 + +He rubbed his open hands over his eyes and forehead. + +The night of effort had tired his brain, and he was no longer thinking +actively. He had a little interval of blankness, sitting at his desk +with his hands pressed over his eyes.... + +He got up presently, and stood quite motionless at the window, looking +out. + +His lamp was still burning, but for some time he had not been writing by +the light of his lamp. Insensibly the day had come and abolished his +need for that individual circle of yellow light. Colour had returned to +the world, clean pearly colour, clear and definite like the glance of a +child or the voice of a girl, and a golden wisp of cloud hung in the sky +over the tower of the church. There was a mist upon the pond, a soft +grey mist not a yard high. A covey of partridges ran and halted and ran +again in the dewy grass outside his garden railings. The partridges were +very numerous this year because there had been so little shooting. +Beyond in the meadow a hare sat up as still as a stone. A horse +neighed.... Wave after wave of warmth and light came sweeping before the +sunrise across the world of Matching's Easy. It was as if there was +nothing but morning and sunrise in the world. + +From away towards the church came the sound of some early worker +whetting a scythe. + + + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Mr. Britling Sees It Through, by H. G. 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