“What I want to arrive at,” Mr. Mervin Brown said, a little impatiently, “is something definite.”

“Let me put it my own way,” Nigel begged.  “A very large section of our present-day politicians—­you, if I may say so, amongst them, Mr. Mervin Brown—­have believed this country safe against any military dangers, because of the connections existing between your unions of working men and similar bodies in Germany.  This is a great fallacy for two reasons:  first because Germany has always intended to have some one else pull the chestnuts out of the fire for her, and second because we cannot internationalise labour.  English and German workmen may come together on matters affecting their craft and the conditions of their labour, but at heart one remains a German and one an Englishman, with separate interests and a separate outlook.”

“Well, at the end of it all,” Mr. Mervin Brown said, “the bogey is war.  What sort of a war?  An invasion of England is just as impossible to-day as it was twenty years ago.”

Nigel nodded.

“I cannot answer your question,” he admitted.  “I was looking to Jesson’s report to give us an idea as to that.”

“You shall see it to-morrow,” Mr. Mervin Brown promised.  “It is round at the War Office at the present moment.”

“Without seeing it,” Nigel went on, “I expect I can tell you one startling feature of its contents.  It suggested, did it not, that the principal movers against us would be Russian and China and—­a country which you prefer just now not to mention?”

“But that country is our ally!” Mr. Mervin Brown exclaimed.

Nigel smiled a little sadly.

“She has been,” he admitted.  “Still, if you had been au fait with diplomatic history thirty years ago, Mr. Mervin Brown, you would know that she was on the point of ending her alliance with us and establishing one with Germany.  It was only owing to the genius of one English statesman that at the last moment she almost reluctantly renewed her alliance with us.  She is in the same state of doubt concerning our destiny to-day.  She has seen our last two Governments forget that we are an Imperial Power and endeavour to apply the principles of sheer commercialism to the conduct of a great nation.  She may have opened her eyes a thousand years later than we did, but she is awake enough now to know that this will not do.  There is little enough of generosity amongst the nations; none amongst the Orientals.  I have a conviction myself that there is a secret alliance between China and this other Power, a secret and quite possibly an aggressive alliance.”

Mr. Mervin Brown sat for a few moments deep in thought.  Somehow or other his face had gained in dignity since the beginning of the conversation.  The nervous fear in his eyes had been replaced by a look of deep and solemn anxiety.

“If you are right, Lord Dorminster,” he pronounced presently, “the world has rolled backwards these last ten years, and we who have failed to mark its retrogression may have a terrible responsibility thrust upon us.”