Amy jumped to her feet and then sat down again.
"I—I don't understand it!" she exclaimed. "It's all so inconceivably wicked. Just because a wretched little country like Servia...."
She broke off and sat interlacing her fingers and frowning perplexedly.
"Don't be too hard on Servia, Lady Amy," Mayhew said and told her his version of the Serajevo murders.
"And don't be too hard on even Austria," added O'Rane softly when the story was done. "I'm none so sure it was Austria that baited the trap. When you see how keen Germany is to keep the quarrel fanned——"
"And bring France in at one door and Russia at the other?" Loring interrupted sceptically. "The one combination Bismarck schemed to avoid?"
"Bismarck's dead," O'Rane flung back. "And Russia won't be mobilized for weeks. If once they break through, the Germans can march to Paris and back again while she's getting ready. It's a gamble, but she had to gamble sooner or later. No country on earth could stand her rate of preparations. If they can break through.... Where's a map, Jim? I want to see the length of line from Belgium to Switzerland. Of course, if the French can hold them for a month——"
"France hasn't declared war yet," I called out as they hurried away. Neither checked his pace at my words. Heaven knows! I paid little enough attention to them myself. At best it was an exercise in whistling to keep up courage.
When they had gone, Mayhew slipped quietly away, and in half an hour a car was at the door, and we went round to the front of the house to bid him good-bye. Lady Loring, who had spent the afternoon in her room, came down for a moment, and I saw that her eyes were red and her placid, pretty face haggard with distress.
"Why must it be, George?" she whispered, pointing over the valley to the blue haze of the Gloucestershire hills. "It's all so peaceful here.... And there must be thousands of places like this all over Europe—with men coming home through the fields in the cool of evening.... Why must they start blowing each other to pieces when none of them knows what it's all about? Who can be wicked enough to take the responsibility?"