“Perfectly.”
“Oh! Well, I don’t.”
An indignant silence followed.
“May I ask you a question now, sir?” I said at last.
“Well?”
“Suppose this time England begins. Suppose we murder all the Spanish women in London first. What are you going to do--as Spanish Premier?”
“Er--I don’t quite----”
“Are you going to order the Spanish Fleet to sail for the mouth of the Thames, and hurl itself upon the British fleet?”
“Of course not, She has no fleet.”
“Then do you agree with the--er Spanish Colonel, who goes about saying that Spain’s honour will never be safe until she has a fleet as big as England’s?”