"I believe I've got an honorary rank of some kind as a Lord Lieutenant," answered Loring, "but I'm not on the active list. What's the Special Reserve been doing?"
"I hear they received secret preparatory mobilization orders in March," said O'Rane. "It's not supposed to be known, but one of the military attachés told me. This is April. What's it all about?"
"The Government won't mobilize the Regular Army for a row of this kind," said Loring contemptuously.
"Well, what are they doing it for, then?"
But O'Rane's question was unanswered for another four months.
Loring accompanied me to the Turkish Baths, and we lay on adjoining couches sipping coffee and lazily discussing what had taken place during his absence from England. If ever a man was bored and dissatisfied, that man was Loring. A certain pride kept him away from the House of Lords, he had neither the age nor the energy to qualify him for a Governorship and was yet too old and substantial in mind to be amused by a purely social life.
"Old Burgess was right, you know, George," he yawned. "I've had a damned wasted experience. And the Lord knows how it will end. What is there to do?"
"I should spend a few weeks in town," I suggested. "You've probably had enough of your own company."
"God! Yes! Only London, you know.... D'you see much of the Daintons? You can speak quite freely. After all I was engaged to her for nearly a year, and it's been broken off for three."
I finished my coffee rather deliberately and lit a fresh cigarette.