“England has declared war against the Transvaal!” said Madge.
“On the contrary, it is Mr Kruger, the Boer farmer, who has declared war against Great Britain!” said he.
“Poor Mr Kruger!” said Madge.
“I am sorry—very sorry! War is terrible! I know what war means,” said Mrs Harland.
“Sorry!—sorry!” cried her son. “Why, what is there to be grieved, about? You’re not a friend of Mr Kruger’s, mother?”
“I know what war means,” said she.
“And I don’t,” said he.
There was something in his voice that suggested a sigh, and it seemed that he was aware of this himself, for he threw his riding crop into a corner, and cried out quite cheerily—“I’m happy to feel all the springs of domesticity welling up within my bosom since you made me the happiest chap in the county, my Madge. I have no greater ambition than to sit in a chair at one side of the fire with you to look at, my Madge. How rosy you are, my dear. What is keeping the lunch, mother? We must drink together ‘Confusion to Kruger!’ His ultimatum—fancy a half-caste Dutch peasant having the impudence to write an ultimatum to Great Britain!—it expires to-day. We’ll not leave the hall till we are sure it has expired.”
He continued in this excited strain during lunch, and Madge found that she too was in the same vein. War was in the air, and while the crowds in London were cheering aloud and singing “God Save the Queen!” with flashing eyes, the little group of three at the table in that old Somerset hall stood up and drank to the success of the Queen’s soldiers in South Africa. Around them on the oak panels were the pictures of Harlands in red coats, Harlands in blue coats, Harlands in the demi-armour of the Stuarts, Harlands in the chain mail of the Lancastrians. Every man of them carried a sword and kept his eyes fixed on the living head of their house sternly, anxiously.
And that was why Julian, after drinking to the toast which he had given a moment before, remained on his feet with his glass still in his hand, and with his eyes looking from picture to picture as though he had never seen one of them previously in his life.