'I am not going to tell you yet. During the four days I have been in London I have been looking around, trying to understand the working motives, the guiding principles, of this, the capital of the Empire. I seem like a man in a strange country, and I am learning my way round. Oh, I do hope I am wrong!'
'Wrong,—how? What do you mean?'
'This war is maddening. Last night I couldn't sleep for thinking of it,—all the horror of it got hold of me. I fancied myself out at the front again,—I heard the awful howls and shrieks of the shells, heard the booming of the big guns, smelt the acids of the explosives, heard the groans of the men, saw them lying in the trenches and on the No Man's Land, torn, mutilated, mangled. It is positively ghastly,—war is hell, man, hell!'
'Yes,' I said, 'but we must see it through.'
'I know, I know. But how far away is the end? How long is this carnage and welter of blood to continue?'
'Let's change the subject,' I said. 'We'll get a bit of dinner, and then go to a place of amusement.'
'I don't feel like it to-night. Do you know any members of Parliament, any Cabinet Ministers?'
'Yes, a few. Why?'
'I want to go to the House of Commons. I want to know what those men who are guiding our affairs are thinking.'
'Oh, all right,' I laughed. 'I can easily get a permit to the House of Commons. I'll take you. As it happens, too, I can get you an introduction to one or two members of the Government.'