"
"The man is, at any rate," Doctor Lennard interposed, "the most
brilliant anonymous writer since the days of Swift and the letters
of Junius."
Mr. Stenson for a moment hesitated. He seemed uncertain whether
or no to join in the conversation. Finally, impulse swayed him.
"Let us all be thankful," he said, "that Paul Fiske is content
with the written word. If the democracy of England found
themselves to-day with such a leader, it is he who would be ruling
the country, and not I."
"The man is a pacifist!" the Earl protested.
"So we all are," the Bishop declared warmly. "We are all
pacifists in the sense that we are lovers of peace. There is not
one of us who does not deplore the horrors of to-day. There is
not one of us who is not passionately seeking for the master mind
which can lead us out of it."
"There is only one way out," the Earl insisted, "and that is to
beat the enemy."
"It is the only obvious way," Julian intervened, joining in the
conversation for the first time, "but meanwhile, with every tick
of the clock a fellow creature dies."
"It is a question," Mr. Hannaway Wells reflected, "whether the
present generation is not inclined to be mawkish with regard to
human life. History has shown us the marvellous benefits which
have accrued to the greatest nations through the lessening of
population by means of warfare."
"History has also shown us," Doctor Lennard observed, "that the
last resource of force is force.
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