"
The conversation, owing to the intervention of other of the
guests, became general and platitudinal. Soon after, Mr. Stenson
rose and excused himself. His secretary; who had been at the
telephone, desired a short conference. There was a brief silence
after his departure.
"Stenson," the Oxonian observed, "is beginning to show signs of
strain."
"Why not?" Lord Shervinton pointed out. "He came into office full
of the most wonderful enthusiasm. His speeches rang through the
world like a clarion note. He converted waverers. He lit fires
which still burn. But he is a man of movement. This present
stagnation is terribly irksome to him. I heard him speak last
week, and I was disappointed. He seems to have lost his
inspiration. What he needs is a stimulus of some sort, even of
disaster."
"I wonder," the Bishop reflected, "if he is really afraid of the
people?"
"I consider his remark concerning them most ill-advised," Lord
Maltenby declared pompously.
"I know the people," the Bishop continued, "and I love them. I
think, too, that they trust me. Yet I am not sure that I cannot
see a glimmering of what is at the back of Stenson's mind. There
are a good many millions in the country who honestly believe that
war is primarily an affair of the politicians; who believe, too,
that victory means a great deal more to what they term `the upper
classes' than it does to them. Yet, in every sense of the word,
they are bearing an equal portion of the fight, because, when it
comes down to human life, the life of the farm labourer's son is
of the same intrinsic value as the life of the peer's.
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