“You were about right,” assented timid voice.
“And now look at Lloyd George. Why, Wilson is twisting him round his finger—that's what he's doing. Just twisting him round his finger. Wants a League of Nations, says Wilson, and then he starts building a fleet as big as ours.”
“Never did like that man,” said timid voice.
“It's him that has let the Germans escape. That's what the armistice means. They've escaped—and just when we'd got them down.”
“It's a shame,” said timid voice.
“This war ought to have gone on longer,” continued big voice. “My opinion is that the world wanted thinning out. People are too crowded. That's what they are—they're too crowded.”
“I agree there,” said timid voice. “We wanted thinning.”
“I consider we haven't been thinned out half enough yet. It ought to have gone on, and it would have gone on but for Wilson. I should like to know his little game. 'Keep your eye on Wilson,' says John Bull, and that's what I say. Seems to me he's one of the artful sort. I saw a case down at Portsmouth. Secretary of a building society—regular chapel-goer, teetotaller, and all that. One day the building society went smash, and Mr Chapel-goer had got off with the lot.”
“I don't like those goody-goody people,” said timid voice.
“No,” said big voice. “William Shakespeare hit it oh. Wonderful what that man knew. 'All the world's a stage, and all the men and women players,' he said. Strordinary how he knew things.”