“Rubbish!” the Duke exclaimed.  “The Germans don’t want a better understanding.  They only want to fool us into believing that they do.”

Seaman looked a little pained.  He stuck to his guns, however.

“His Grace and I,” he observed, “are old opponents on this subject.”

“We are indeed,” the Duke agreed.  “You may be an honest man, Mr. Seaman, but you are a very ignorant one upon this particular topic.”

“You are probably both right in your way,” Dominey intervened, very much in the manner of a well-bred host making his usual effort to smooth over two widely divergent points of view.  “There is no doubt a war party in Germany and a peace party, statesmen who place economic progress first, and others who are tainted with a purely military lust for conquest.  In this country it is very hard for us to strike a balance between the two.”

Seaman beamed his thanks upon his host.

“I have friends,” he said impressively, “in the very highest circles of Germany, who are continually encouraging my work here, and I have received the benediction of the Kaiser himself upon my efforts to promote a better feeling in this country.  And if you will forgive my saying so, Duke, it is such ill-advised and ill-founded statements as you are constantly making about my country which is the only bar to a better understanding between us.”

“I have my views,” the Duke snapped, “and they have become convictions.  I shall continue to express them at all times and with all the eloquence at my command.”

The Ambassador, to whom portions of this conversation had now become audible, leaned a little forward in his place.

“Let me speak first as a private individual,” he begged, “and express my well-studied opinion that war between our two countries would be simply race suicide, an indescribable and an abominable crime.  Then I will remember what I represent over here, and I will venture to add in my ambassadorial capacity that I come with an absolute and heartfelt mandate of peace.  My task over here is to secure and ensure it.”

Caroline flashed a warning glance at her husband.

“How nice of you to be so frank, Prince!” she said.  “The Duke sometimes forgets, in the pursuit of his hobby, that a private dinner table is not a platform.  I insist upon it that we discuss something of more genuine interest.”

“There isn’t a more vital subject in the world,” the Duke declared, resigning himself, however, to silence.

“We will speak,” the Ambassador suggested, “of the way in which our host brought down those tall pheasants.”

“You will tell me, perhaps,” Seaman suggested to the lady to his right, “how you English women have been able to secure for yourselves so much more liberty than our German wives enjoy?”

“Later on,” Stephanie whispered to her host, with a little tremble in her voice, “I have a surprise for you.”