All this remains vividly in my mind, and I believe in that of my wife, but, as I am not going home for a few days, she shall give you her unbiassed account.
The calculation itself was an interesting one, but what strikes me now as more remarkable is the “flair” with which you forecasted with certainty the state of mind of the German Emperor and his advisers, and their intention to go to war the first moment they dared....
No more now.
In haste,
Yours ever,
(Signed) M. P. A. Hankey.
The grounds for my prophecies are stated elsewhere. I won’t repeat them here. They really weren’t predictions; they were certainties.
I remark in passing that what the sundial said was:—
“Forsitan Ultima.”
By the way, I was called a sundial once by a vituperative woman whom I didn’t know; she wrote a letter abusing me as an optimist, and sent these lines:—
“There he stands amidst the flowers,
Counting only sunny hours,