“Richard,” she exclaimed, “you shall not do this from my house!  I forbid you!”

“Do what?”

“Give information.  Do you know what it would mean if they believed you?”

“Death,” he answered.  “Maderstrom knew the risk he ran when he came to this country under a false name.”

“Perfectly,” Lessingham admitted.

“But I won’t have it!” Philippa protested.  “He has become our friend.  Day by day we have grown to like him better and better.  He has saved your life, Dick.  He has brought you back to us.  Think what it is that you purpose!”

“It is what every soldier has to face,” Richard declared.

“You men drive me crazy with your foolish ideas!” Philippa cried desperately.  “The war is in your brains, I think.  You would carry it from the battlefields into your daily life.  Because two great countries are at war, is everything to go by—­chivalry?—­all the finer, sweeter feelings of life?  If you two met on the battlefield, it would be different.  Here in my drawing-room, I will not have this black demon of the war dragged in as an excuse for murder!  Take Dick away, Helen!” she begged.  “Mr. Lessingham is leaving to-night.  I will pledge my word that until then he remains a harmless citizen.”

“Women don’t understand these things, Philippa—­” Richard began.

“Thank heavens we understand them better than you men!” Philippa interrupted fiercely.  “You have but one idea—­to strike—­the narrow idea of men that breeds warfare.  I tell you that if ever universal peace comes, if ever the nations are taught the horror of this lust for blood, this criminal outrage against civilisation, it is the women who will become the teachers, because amongst your instincts the brutish ones of force are the first to leap to the surface at the slightest provocation.  We women see further, we know more.  I swear to you, Richard, that if you interfere I will never forgive you as long as I live!”

Richard stared at his sister in amazement.  There seemed to be some new spirit born within her.  Throughout all their days he had never known her so much in earnest, so passionately insistent.  He looked from her to the man whom she sought to protect, and who answered, unasked, the thoughts that were in his mind.

“Whatever harm I may have been able to do,” Lessingham announced, “is finished.  I leave this place to-night, probably for ever.  As for the Commandant,” he went on with a faint smile, “he is already upon my track.  There is nothing you can tell him about me which he does not know.  It is just a matter of hours, the toss of a coin, whether I get away or not.”

“They’ve found you out, then?” Richard exclaimed.

“Only a miracle saved me from arrest a week ago,” Lessingham acknowledged.  “Your Commandant here is at the present moment in London for the sole purpose of denouncing me.”

“And yet you remain here, paying afternoon calls?” Richard observed incredulously.  “I’m hanged if I can see through this!”