“So Bertie Maynard told me,” remarked Lionel. “I saw him in the club just before lunch, and he said that you’d had engine-trouble.”
“Oh, it wasn’t very much really. Only, after Claude’s smash, I’m rather careful,” she said.
“One should always take every precaution,” declared Lionel seriously, as he rose and gave her his chair opposite me. “A lot of the boys are far too daring nowadays. They’ve followed Pegoud, and take needless risks long before they are qualified to do so. It’s easy enough to make the sensational loop if you are a practised hand. But when half-trained pupils try and attempt it—well, they’re bound to make a mess of it.”
Roseye glanced at me for a moment, and I knew that she was annoyed at Lionel’s presence. He was a good enough fellow in his place as a friend of her family, and a gossip who entertained her father so constantly, but she had no desire that he should be present at what she had intended should be a cosy tête-à-tête over our tea and muffins.
“Well. Have you seen the papers to-day?” I asked, in order to change the subject. “They are still full of the want of an efficient air-defence.”
“That will come all right, my dear Claude, I’m sure,” replied Lionel who, leaning back against the corner of my writing-table, had lit a fresh cigarette.
“I sincerely hope so,” returned Roseye. “What we sadly need is a Man who will be really responsible for air-defence—and air-defence alone—one who can make the most of the weapons that are now in our hands, and who has the wit, courage and initiative to use our own splendid airmen as they themselves desire to be employed—namely, to fight the enemy.”
“Quite so,” I agreed. “We also want arrangements for warning the towns and cities that air-raids are probable, so that people may take cover against both bombs and splinters of shell from anti-aircraft guns.”
“All that will come in due course,” Lionel assured us.
“No doubt,” I hastened to say. “Please understand that I’m not criticising any department of our defences. On the contrary, I only argue from the point of the man who may be desirous of protecting his home. Perhaps, as you say, some efficient means will at last be found by which to deal successfully with the enemy aircraft. If so, the whole country will eagerly welcome it.”