“I must confess,” he said, “that I feel the deepest interest in what the Bishop has just said.  I could not talk to you about the military situation, even if I knew more than you do, which is not the case, but I think it is clear that we have reached something like a temporary impasse.  There certainly seems to be no cause for alarm upon any front, yet, not only in London, but in Paris and even Rome, there is a curious uneasiness afoot, for which no one can, account which no one can bring home to any definite cause.  In the same connection, we have confidential information that a new spirit of hopefulness is abroad in Germany.  It has been reported to us that sober, clear-thinking men—­and there are a few of them, even in Germany—­have predicted peace before a month is out.”

“The assumption is,” Doctor Lennard interpolated, “that Germany has something up her sleeve.”

“That is not only the assumption,” the Cabinet Minister replied, “but it is also, I believe, the truth.”

“One could apprehend and fear a great possible danger,” Lord Shervinton observed, “if the Labour Party in Germany were as strong as ours, or if our own Labour, Party were entirely united.  The present conditions, however, seem to me to give no cause for alarm.”

“That is where I think you are wrong,” Hannaway Wells declared.  “If the Labour Party in Germany were as strong as ours, they would be strong enough to overthrow the Hohenzollern clique, to stamp out the militarism against which we are at war, to lay the foundations of a great German republic with whom we could make the sort of peace for which every Englishman hopes.  The danger, the real danger which we have to face, would lie in an amalgamation of the Labour Party, the Socialists and the Syndicalists in this country, and in their insisting upon treating with the weak Labour Party in Germany.”

“I agree with the Bishop,” Julian pronounced.  “The unclassified democracy of our country may believe itself hardly treated, but individually it is intensely patriotic.  I do not believe that its leaders would force the hand of the country towards peace, unless they received full assurance that their confreres in Germany were able to assume a dominant place in the government of that country —­a place at least equal to the influence of the democracy here.”

Doctor Lennard glanced at the speaker a little curiously.  He had known Julian since he was a boy but had never regarded him as anything but a dilettante.

“You may not know it,” he said, “but you are practically expounding the views of that extraordinary writer of whom we were speaking—­Paul Fiske.”

“I have been told,” the Bishop remarked, cracking a walnut, “that Paul Fiske is the pseudonym of a Cabinet Minister.”

“And I,” Hannaway Wells retorted, “have been informed most credibly that he is a Church of England clergyman.”

“The last rumour I heard,” Lord Shervinton put in, “was that he is a grocer in a small way of business at Wigan.”