Tatterdemalion

no idea that some of us who staye

al. I used to look on him as a typically good-natured blunt Englishman, rather enjoying his cynicism, and appreciating his open-air tendencies-for he was a devotee of golf, and fond of shooting when he had the chance; a good companion, too, with an open hand to people in distress. He was unmarried, and dwelled in a bungalow-like house not far from mine, and next door to a German family called Holsteig, who had lived in England nearly twenty years. I knew them pretty well also-a very united trio, father, mother, and one son. The father, who came from Hanover, was something in the City, the mother was Sc

e same carriage. Harburn and I talked freely. But Holsteig, a fair, well-set-up man of about fifty, w

e that your boy was going o

ig loo

he's liable to military service. But than

Harburn. "She surely

, of course, but she th

iving in this country all his life! I never heard

? He is of military age and a German subject. We were thinking of his

urn. "You Germans are too bal

did not

Harburn the same eveni

onish you this morning? In spite of living here so long and ma

ed; "put yourse

any. I wonder," he added reflectively, "I

nce in the Holsteigs, as I certainly did, for I liked them and was sure of their good faith. If I had said: "Of c

s thoughts began to turn to the subject which afterwards comp

journals, for what would please the public, than out of any deep animus. At all events I remember meeting a sub-editor, who told me he had been opening letters of approval all

who've paid us the compliment of fin

st la guerre. You know Harburn, don't you? Did you se

himself, he began talkin

with the snap and spark as of steel and flint and tinder; and I felt I was in the presence of a man who

d, "there have bee

s," he cried, "the

do you know person

od! Not

ey spies an

hed, but that laugh was

id; "and all that slop; take 'em

abhorrence myself, and had to hold myself in all the time for fear it should gallop over my commonsense. But Harburn, I could see, was giving it full rein. His whole manner and personality

ithin him-his fire could never be lighted by love, therefore he drifted in the waters of indifferentism. Now suddenly in this grizzly time he has found himself, a new man, girt and armed by this new passion of hate; stung and uplifted, as it were, by the sight of that which he can smite with a whole heart. It's deeply interesting'-I said to myself-'Who could have dreamed of such a reincarnation; for what on the surface could possi

out it, but I've got my teeth i

iled in, the higher grew his stock, as a servant of his country. I'm sure he did not do it to gain credit; the thing was a crusade to him, something sacred-'his bit'; but I believe he also felt for the first time in his life that he was really living, getting out of life the full of i

hink of the women and c

k, and I saw how exc

d put them in, too, if I could. As for the children, they'r

no more so, of course, than any other man

g of the Holsteigs, and indeed had pretty well forgotten their existence. But coming back at the

r. Cumb

ned the bitter truth-that there is no such thing when pressure comes. It's much worse for Harold than for me; he feels his paralysed position intensely, and would, I'm sure, really rather be 'doing his bit' as an interned, than be at large, subject to everyone's suspicion and scorn. But I am terrified all the time that they will intern him. You used to be intimate with Mr. Harburn. We have not seen him since the first autumn of the war, but we know that he has been very active in the agitation, and is very powerful in this matter. I

, dear Mr.

truly

Hols

speaking to Harburn, and consulted the proverbs: "Speech is silver, but Silence is golden-When in doubt play trumps." "Second thoughts are best-He who hesitates is lost." "Look before you leap-Delays are dange

olsteig the other day; she seems terrified that they'll intern her son, that part

d only went on because to have stopped at that would have been worse

man army if he could? By George, is he at large still

fidence. The boy is half British, and a friend

. As to confidence, Cumbermere, there's no such thing

eally are crazy on this subject

making no exceptions. The British army or an intern

"we cease to be friends. I wo

grumbled; "sit down! W

Holsteig himself of th

ain. I've changed since then. That pup ought to be

to do but raise vegetables in their garden and read poetry and philosophy-not occupations to take a young man out of himself. Mrs. Holsteig, whose nerves were evidently at cracking point, had become extremely bitter, and lost all power of seeing the war as a whole. All the ugly human qualities and hard people which the drive and pressure of a great struggle inevitably bring to the top seemed viewed by her now as if they were the normal character of her fellow countrymen, and she made no allowance for the fact that those fellow countrymen had not commenced this struggle, nor for the certainty tha

n to his bungalow for a summer holiday. He had not been in the room five minutes before he was off on his favourite topic. My nerves must have been on edge from illness, for I cannot express the disgust with which I listened to him on that occasion. He seemed to me just like a dog who mumbles and chews a mo

g goes up once a week to see 'im, 'Olsteig. She's nigh out of her min

not bring myself

oured self, and asked me to dinner the next day. It was the first time I had met him since the victory. We had a most excellent repast, and drank the health of the Future in some of his o

ists want to release our Huns. But I've put my foot on it; they won't get free till they're out of th

pulse which I couldn't resist, "I

ared

ned insidious disease; men's souls can't stand ver

lau

e the brutes, the better I feel. Here

ve been no more unhappy men on earth than Cromwell's Ironsides, or the

do with me?" h

and came to an end of their smiting

elling!" he

it a good stunt, or are merely weak sentimentalists; they can drop it easily enough when it ceases to be a good stun

is chair, upsetting his glass and

he said; "I'm going

vidently only just come in, for she was still holding the curtain in her hand. It was Mrs. Holsteig, with her fine grey hair blown about her face, looking strange and almost ghostly in a grey gown. Harburn h

upting; I came to

er voice, Harburn jumped u

u silently; I do so to your face. My son lies between life and death in your prison-your prison. Whether he lives or dies I

o reach the window. She vanished so swiftly and silently, she had sp

rical!" he s

ut you have been cursed by a liv

ding stock-still with the h

aughed, and it jar

aid, "I believe t

in that mood,

are all food

ly, slammed the window to, bolted

. "She must think me a prize sort of idio

him-and no bones broken. And yet-what she had said was no doubt true; hundreds of women-of his fellow countrywomen-must silently have put their curse on one who had been the chief compeller of their misery. Still, he had put his curse on the Huns and their belongings, and I felt he was man enough to take what he had given. 'No,' I thought, 'she has only fanned the flame of his hate. But, by Jove! that's j

however, some days later, thanking me for coming, and saying he was out of danger. But she made no allusion to that

I was not back in Town till the late summer of 1919. Going into my Club one day I came on Harburn in

I said. "You look at

tter," he

er our last ev

of gusty grunt,

aid. "What's happened to

had this from him." And he handed m

Mr. Ha

the most wonderful experience of my life. In that camp of sorrow-where there was sickness of mind and body such as I am sure you have never seen or realised, such endless hopeless mental anguish of poor huddled creatures turning and turning on themselves year after year-I learned to

ithfull

d Hol

down, a

ironical.

spark and smoulder in his eyes. "He

Harburn; I

ou he is. Ah! Those brutes! Well

ry object. I changed the subject hurriedly, and soon took my departure. But goin

covered fro

it was t

9