"Tell Mrs. Jameson all about it, Harry," she commanded coolly. There was something in the tone which rendered Mrs. Jameson's extorted confidence quite worthless.
"There's little to tell," said Captain Hathaway. "The fellow who really earned anything there was to get—and, I'm glad to say, got the D.C.M.—was one of my men, a chap named Jim Swain. He used to be in our employment, Ethel, by the way. It was a pretty tight corner and I got practically left alone—all the other fellows knocked out—and this chap Swain came up with a bag of bombs—jolly plucky thing, for there didn't seem a dog's chance—and we chucked the bombs at the Hun till he didn't dare raise his head. After a bit, some of another company came up and we consolidated that bit of trench. That's all there was to it."
"Oh, how splendid!" Mrs. Jameson enthused vaguely. "Leadership is everything, isn't it?"
"When you've got something to lead, Mrs. Jameson. One couldn't have better stuff than my men—they're magnificent. They're the nation—and now they're coming back they've got to be treated like the men they are and not like soulless machinery." He wound up on a note of fierce protest against something not obvious to his hearers.
"Now, Harry," said his wife, "don't inflict your theories on Mrs. Jameson. We both of us positively refuse to be sympathetic with the working class, don't we, Mrs. Jameson?" She laughed lightly. "The working class is just as selfish as any other."
A wave of collective chatter from an approaching group engulfed this conversation.
Late that night Sir Thomas Hathaway sat alone with his son.
"Now, Harry, my lad," he said. "You're going to take Ethel away for a three months' holiday. You've jolly well earned it, both of you. And, when you come back, you'll be head of Hathaway and Company. I've done my bit and I'm going to rest. My interest in the business is now being transferred into your name. That's my little present to you, my boy, by way of showing that I'm proud of you. And I know that you'll keep up the fine old traditions of the house, eh?"