"Well, you wanted his name. I knew he'd laugh at all that peace rot. It's the greatest humbug of the twentieth century, and I admire the German Emperor for his courage. He and Kitchener are the two greatest men in the world to-day. Now, don't you think so?"
"I don't think anything of the kind. If there is any one conviction in my life that is sincere it is this. You know it, Harry."
She was very earnest, and he would not wound her. Gabrielle Silvester could dream dreams, and some of them would put great intellects to shame. Harry knew this and admired her in the mood; he altered his own course at once.
"Of course I know it. But tell me, what did Faber say?"
"Oh, very little—he spoke about the frost."
"Wants to skate with you, eh?"
"I think not. He is full of bogies. The English Channel and the North Sea are to be frozen over."
"Great idea that. We shall skate all the way to Paris! Dine at the Ritz and curl afterwards. What a man!"
"No, really—what he fears is a panic in England if the sea should really freeze."
Harry thought about it for some minutes in silence. Presently he said: