"Mr. Mordan doesn't believe it," said Constance Grey, when I had shaken hands with her aunt.
"Doesn't he?" said that strong, plain-spoken woman. "Well, I fancy there are a good many more by the same way of thinking, who'll have their eyes opened pretty widely by this time to-morrow."
"Then you take the whole thing seriously?" I asked them.
Somehow, my own thoughts had become active in the presence of these women, and were racing over everything that I had seen and heard that day, from the moment of my chat with Wardle, before sunrise, in Holborn.
"I don't see any other way to take it," said Mrs. Van Homrey, with laconic emphasis. "Do you?" she added.
"Well, you see, I did not begin by taking your view. My first word of it was just before dawn this morning, from a newspaper man in Holborn; and, somehow—well, you know, the general idea seems to be that the whole thing is an elaborate joke worked up by the Navy League, or somebody, as a counter-stroke to the Disarmament Demonstration—to teach us a lesson, and all that, you know."
I had to remind myself that I was addressing two ladies who were sure to be whole-hearted supporters of the Navy League and all other Imperialist organizations. Constance Grey seemed to me to be appraising me. I fancied those brilliant eyes of hers were looking right into me with grave criticism, and discovering me unworthy. My heart sickened at the thought. I should have been more distressed had not a vague, futile anger crept into my mind. After all, I thought, what right had this girl from South Africa to criticize me? I was a man. I knew England better than she did. I was a journalist of experience. Bah! My twopenny thoughts drooped and fainted as they rose.
"But perhaps you are better informed?" I said, weakly. "Perhaps you have other information?"
Constance Grey looked straight at me, and as I recall her gaze now, it was almost maternal in its yearning gravity.
"I think it's going to be a lesson all right," she said. "What cuts me to the heart is the fear that it may have come too late."