The conscience of the world is already being stirred."
"Our enemies," the Earl pronounced confidently from his place at
the head of the table, "are already a broken race. They are on
the point of exhaustion. Austria is, if possible, in a worse
plight. That is what will end the war--the exhaustion of our
opponents."
"The deciding factor," Mr. Hannaway Wells put in, with a very
non-committal air, "will probably be America. She will bring her
full strength into the struggle just at the crucial moment. She
will probably do what we farther north have as yet failed to do:
she will pierce the line and place the German armies in Flanders
in peril."
The Cabinet Minister's views were popular. There was a little
murmur of approval, something which sounded almost like a purr of
content. It was just one more expression of that strangely
discreditable yet almost universal failing,--the over-reliance
upon others. The quiet remark of the man who suddenly saw fit to
join in the discussion struck a chilling and a disturbing note.
"There is one thing which could end the war at any moment," Mr.
Stenson said, leaning a little forward, "and that is the will of
the people."
There was perplexity as well as discomfiture in the minds of his
hearers.
"The people?" Lord Shervinton repeated. "But surely the people
speak through the mouths of their rulers?"
"They have been content to, up to the present," the Prime Minister
agreed, "but Europe may still see strange and dramatic events
before many years are out.
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