“I do not want pamphlets,” Selingman interrupted.  “I want an actual report from Ulster and Dublin of the state of feeling in the country, and, if possible, interviews with prominent people.  For this the society would pay a bonus over and above the travelling expenses and your salary.  If you accept my offer, this is probably one of the first tasks I should commit to you.”

“Give me a few more examples,” Norgate begged.

“Another subject,” Selingman continued, “upon which there is wide divergence of opinions in Germany, and a great deal of misrepresentation, is the attitude of certain of your Cabinet Ministers towards the French entente:  how far they would support it, at what they would stop short.”

“Isn’t that rather a large order?” Norgate ventured.  “I don’t number many Cabinet Ministers among my personal friends.”

Selingman puffed away at his cigar for a moment.  Then he withdrew it from his mouth and expelled large volumes of smoke.

“You are, I believe, intimately acquainted with Mr. Hebblethwaite?”

“How the mischief did you know that?” Norgate demanded.

“Our society,” Selingman announced, smiling ponderously, “has ramifications in every direction.  It is our business to know much.  We are collectors of information of every sort and nature.”

“Seems to have been part of your business to follow me about,” observed Norgate.

“Perhaps so.  If we thought it good for us to have you followed about, we certainly should,” Selingman admitted.  “You see, in Germany,” he added, leaning back in his chair, “we lay great stress upon detail and intelligence.  We get to know things:  not the smattering of things, like you over here are too often content with, but to know them thoroughly and understand them.  Nothing ever takes us by surprise.  We are always forewarned.  So far as any one can, we read the future.”

“You are a very great nation, without a doubt,” Norgate acknowledged, “but my quarter of an hour is coming to an end.  Tell me what else you would expect from me if I accepted this post?”

“For the moment, I can think of nothing,” Selingman replied.  “There are many ways in which we might make use of you, but to name them now would be to look a little too far into the future.”

“By whom should I really be employed?”

“By the Anglo-German Peace Society,” Selingman answered promptly.  “Let me say a word more about that society.  I am proud of it.  I am one of those prominent business men who are responsible for its initiation.  I have given years of time and thought to it.  All our efforts are directed towards promoting a better understanding with England, towards teaching the two countries to appreciate one another.  But in the background there is always something else.  It is useless to deny that the mistrust existing between the two countries has brought them more than once almost to the verge of war.  What we want is to be able, at critical times, to throw oil upon the troubled waters, and if the worst should come, if a war really should break out, then we want to be able to act as peacemakers, to heal as soon as possible any little sores that there may be, and to enter afterwards upon a greater friendship with a purified England.”