reverend gentleman's photograph albums and college and school text-books. This suggestion of learning was enforced by the little wooden shield bearing a college coat-of-arms that hung over the looking-glass, and by a photograph of Mr. Gabbitas in cap and gown in an Oxford frame that adorned the opposite wall. And in the middle of that wall stood his writing-desk, which I knew to have pigeon-holes when it was open, and which made him seem not merely cultured but literary. At that he wrote sermons, composing them himself!
"Yes," he said, taking possession of the hearthrug, "the war had to come sooner or later. If we smash their fleet for them now--well, there's an end to the matter!"
He stood on his toes and then bumped down on his heels, and looked blandly through his spectacles at a water-colour by his sister--the subject was a bunch of violets--above the sideboard which was his pantry, and tea-chest and cellar. "Yes," he said as he did so.
I coughed, and wondered how I might presently get away.
He invited me to smoke--that queer old practice!--and then when I declined, began talking in a confidential tone of this "dreadful business" of the strikes. "The war won't improve that outlook," he said, and was very grave for a moment.
He spoke of the want of thought for their
