‘If you want my story,’ resumed the host, after the servant had left the room, ’and as you are concerned you have a right to hear it, this is how it goes.  I went into the diplomatic service.  Then I met Marjory.  I needn’t say what that meant to me.  For the first time, I think, I knew what living was.  Shortly after came the war.  At first I thought that if America remained neutral as a country, it was not up to individuals to quarrel with that attitude.  Then came the Lusitania.  I wanted to go over at once, but hated to suggest it to Marjory.  One night, though, to my delight, the plucky little girl mentioned it herself.  I hurried back to Washington and offered my resignation, but the chief urged me to remain three months longer, saying that I was absolutely necessary in the reorganisation of a certain branch of the Intelligence Division in New York.  To cut the story short, months and months went on, and they refused to release me.  As a matter of fact I was directing an investigation into German foreign diplomacy that was of so delicate a nature I dared not mention it to Marjory.  At its conclusion I went to Washington and demanded that they let me go—­I gave my exact reason.  The chief said he would give me a reply in a week; but I told him that, no matter what he wrote, I would go at the expiration of that time.  It was while I was waiting for the answer that Marjory said it rested with me whether or not the engagement was to be broken.  I told her that I should be able to state my position in a couple of days.  Well, the letter came.  Perhaps you had better see it.  You can read it to yourself.’

He went to his desk, and searching among the papers, produced a correspondence-form bearing an official stamp.  He handed it to Selwyn.

’WASHINGTON, November 2, 1916.

’Personal and Confidential.

’MY DEAR VAN DERWATER,—­As a boyhood friend of your father’s I have been most anxious to accede to your request for release from your present duties.  I may say that in my desire to do the fairest thing by you, I went so far as to place the facts of the matter before the President himself.  He agreed with me that your services entitled you to every possible consideration; but he also pointed out that the intimate knowledge of our secret diplomacy which you have gained marks you as too valuable a man to let go lightly.  I finally secured his consent, but an hour later he sent for me again.  It was to talk over a new enemy that has arisen in this fight of the present administration to weld the conflicting elements of our nation into a single-thinking whole.  I refer to the ultra-pacifist section which has grown so large recently.

’You told me once that you knew this fellow, Austin Selwyn.  I am sorry to set friend against friend, but his influence over the cultured and pacifist elements has to be met sternly and at once.  We cannot take personal action against him, because he is within his rights as a citizen of a neutral country; but nevertheless his writings are proving a strong disrupting force—­stronger, in fact, than many of the clumsier methods employed by subjects of belligerent nations.