“Are you glad to be off?” I said.
“Damn glad,” he answered. “I’ll be able to see for myself. One man tells you the country is in the clutches of a murder gang, and the next that some nobler spasm convulses it. All the same I hear work in Ireland is trickier than Continental stunts. On the Continent you have the majority of the nation indifferent to you, and only the official part to circumvent; but in Ireland they say half the nation is waiting to give a man away.”
“Why didn’t you come and say you were off?”
“I got orders this morning.”
“We have been thinking of having a look at Ireland. My wife’s interested in adoption work, and wants to start it over there. We can’t make up our minds.”
He looked round. “You?”
“Both of us. D’you think we’d find it worth while?”
“Probably. Why not come over? You’re people with nothing to do.”
“If we do, we’re going to be strictly neutral,” I said. “We want to meet the other side.”
He nodded. “It’s not always easy. That’s what a good many want to do. You may do it if you stay neutral.”