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LIST JAN 1 1922

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

THE

ISLAND OF SHEEP

BY

CADMUS AND HARMONIA

HODDER AND STOUGHTON
LONDON NEW YORK TORONTO

MCMXIX

THE PEOPLE IN THE BOOK

Colonel Arthur Lamont The host and hostess,
and -his wife.

Phyllis Their niece.

The Rev. John Macmillan Minister of the Parish.

The Lady Guidwillie of
Waucht.

Mr. James Burford .
The Lady Sevenoaks. .

Mr. Albert Wyper . .

The Lady Penelope
Wyper.

Mrs. Martha Lavender .
Mrs. Ursula Aspenden .

Mr. Christopher Normand
Sir William Jacob

A Highland landowner.

A Labour ex-Member
of Parliament.

Wife of a former Liberal
Minister.

A progressive j ournalist .
His wife.

An American resident
in England.

A lady given to good
works.

A Conservative.
A Liberal lawyer.

THE PEOPLE IN THE BOOK

Mr. George Stanbury-
Maldwin.

Mr. Penrose MacAndrew

Mr. D. C. Jonas . . .
Mr. Philip Lenchard .
General Ferdinand Morier

Mr. Archibald Strath-
bungo.

Mr. Merryweather Malone
The Lord Linkumdoddie

Late of the Grenadier
Guards.

Lieutenant in the Third
United States Army.

A Labour Leader.
An Imperialist.

Lately commanding an
Army of France.

A Coalition Member of
Parliament.

An American politician.
A Captain of industry.

VI

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

I

Prologue, in which two retired gentlefolk are dis-
tressed about the future of their country. To them
enter the Lady Guidwillie and Mr. Burford.

IN a pleasant arbour looking down on
spring meadows which sloped towards the
western sea, a gentleman was reading aloud
from Matthew Arnold. " The sunshine in
the happy glens is fair," he read.

" And by the sea, and in the brakes,
The grass is cool, the sea-side air
Buoyant and fresh, the mountain flowers
More virginal and sweet than ours.
And there, they say, two bright and agdd snakes,
That once were Cadmus and Harmonia,
Bask in the glens or on the warm sea shore,
In breathless quiet, after all their ills."

He looked up from his book. " Singu-

7

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

larly like us, my dear," he observed to his
wife.

" Yes, darling," she replied. " I feel
aged, but not very bright."

Colonel Lamont rose, revealing six feet
of 'lean manhood clad in the most ancient
of tweeds. He stared for some minutes at
the delectable landscape beneath him. A
shallow glen, seamed by a shining river,
wound to a pale blue ocean. It was bright
with the young grass of May, and patched
with snowdrifts of blossoming hawthorn.
There was no sound in the valley except
the ripple of the stream and the faint
calling of curlews from the hill.

" I've been looking forward to this for
four years," he said. " Peace, you know—
the real peace in one's own place among
one's own people. And npw that I have
got it I don't seem properly to enjoy it.
There are too many empty houses in the
glens. Too many good fellows who will
never gillie for me more. And this old
8

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

world has got such a twist that I can't see
it settling down in our time. I wish to
heaven I knew where we all stood. Kathie,
my dear, I am feeling very much older, and
I am losing my nerve."

The lady looked at him with troubled
eyes. " Do you think we ought to be
entertaining on such a big scale, Arthur,
if we are so much poorer ? "

" Confound it, my dear, it is not the
money. Jennings went through my posi-
tion with me yesterday, and we are still
pretty well off. I wouldn't mind paying
fifteen shillings in the pound in taxes for the
rest of my days. No. It is the country I
am worrying about. Here we have gone and
sacrificed the better part of a million of
our picked men, and crippled hundreds of
thousands more for life. And for what ?
We have won, of course, but we don't
seem to know what we've won. Those
damned politicians are at the job again.
I thought we had washed all that out."

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" And Bolshevism, dear ! " said his wife.

" And every little faction on the globe
wanting to turn itself into a State ! "

" And our own Labour people so dis-
contented ! "

" And all this business of the League of
Nations ! How on earth are we going to
give up our Navy and trust the fortunes of
Britain to a collection of Kilkenny cats ? "

" It's very puzzling, dear. And Agatha
writes me such miserable letters about
Reginald. He's simply wretched at being
out of Parliament, and she has had to
change her cook twice since Christmas. "

This amoebean plaint was interrupted by
the appearance of a young woman. She
was a pretty, fair-haired creature, with eyes
too old and too tragic for her years ; yet
even the listlessness of her walk and the
sombre black of her dress could not muffle
the grace of her youth. She carried a
telegram,, which her aunt opened.

" Martha is coming by to-morrow's
10

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

boat," Mrs. Lament announced. " How
very fortunate ! I hope you will like
Martha Lavender, Phyllis. She is so buoy-
ant and kind and American and devoted to
Arthur. Without her I do not think I could
have faced Jeanne Sevenoaks."

The young girl showed only a conven-
tipnal interest.

" Who are the others ? " she asked.

:< Nobody young, I fear. You see there
are so few young men nowadays ; only
boys. There are the Wypers — Albert and
Pen. Pen is Arthur's niece, you know, and
she wrote and said they both wanted a
rest."

Colonel Lamont snorted. " I wish she
were coming by herself. Ton my word,
Kathie, I don't find it easy to be civil
to Wyper. He patronises me so infer-
nally."

' Well, he has lost his seat now, and
probably he is quite humble. We must be
nice to him for Pen's sake. Then " —
ii

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counting on her fingers — " there is Sir
William Jacob. Jeanne told me to ask
him, and he has been at Oban on some
Land Commission. The great lawyer, you
know, my dear."

" I don't know/' said Phyllis. " And
besides him ? j:

" There's Ursula Aspenden. You must
like her. So good and charitable, and oh !
so pretty."

" I scarcely know her," said the girl.

" There's Christopher Normand."

" I like him," said Phyllis emphatically.
" He was a friend of Charlie's. How awful
for him to be fairly young and healthy and
the best shot in England and yet not to be
allowed to fight because of his lameness !
That would have driven me mad, Aunt
Kathie."

" Well, dear," and the older woman

patted the girl's hand. ' You must be

very kind to him. Poor Kit ! His mother

was such a joy to me till she went mad

12

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

about religion. That's the lot, I think.
Except, of course, Margaret Guidwillie."

" Thank God, she is coming," Colonel
Lamont said fervently. " She has a tongue
that would take the skin off a rhino, but I
would sooner have her at my back in a row
than any ten men. She ought to be here
for tea, for she is coming by the ferry from
Rona. I sent the wagonette to meet her."

The girl seemed unsatisfied. " Didn't
Uncle Arthur say something about a
Labour Member ? "

" Oh, my dear, I forgot. Yes, he is one
of Martha's friends. He has been very ill
and recruiting in Scotland. His name "
—and she consulted a small address-book
in her bag — u is James Burford. Martha
calls him ' Jimmie,' and often * My
Jimmie.' "

" I must confess that the thought of him
makes me confoundedly nervous," said
Colonef Lamont. " I don't a bit trust
Martha Lavender's judgment. You re-

13

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member when she planted me with a
young Hindu who was some beastly kind
of a god. The fellow may be as spiky as
a hedgehog, if he is not as mad as a hatter.
I never met a Labour Member in my
life."

" He is not a Member/' said his wife.
" He was beaten by ten thousand votes by
the man who makes all the potted meats.
Martha says he is a saint."

" A what ! " exclaimed Mr. Burford's
prospective host in dire alarm.

Then he turned and gazed at the grass
slopes beyond the sunk fence, for someone
was making his way towards them from
that quarter. The stranger was obviously
out of breath and took a long time to cross
the ha-ha. Then he caught sight of the
house and stood blinking at it, till he be-
came conscious of the presence of people
in the arbour.

As he turned towards them Colonel
Lamont saw a squarely-built man of about

14

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

thirty-five, with a broad, cheerful face.
Short-sighted blue eyes peered through
horn spectacles, and a thatch of untidy hair
was revealed, since he had removed his hat
to cool his brow. He was curiously dressed
for that part of the world, wearing a black
coat and a bowler hat. In his hand he
carried a small kit-bag, which he dumped
on the gravel walk.

:< Is it Colonel Lament ? '' he asked,
beaming at the party in the arbour.

" I am James Burford, sir/' he con-
tinued. " I was due to come to-morrow,
but the weather was so fine that I got a
small boat to put me over to Kylanish and
I walked the rest . It 's a bit of an intrusion,
but you know what we city folks are like
when we get on holiday."

He spoke in a soft West-Midland voice
with a slurring of " s's " and a slight burr
in the " r's " ; and he looked so friendly
and boy-like as he made his apologies that
his three hearers vied with each other in

15

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

declaring their pleasure at the sight of
him.

Presently across the lawn came the
butler, followed by a footman and a
parlourmaid with the materials of tea.
Ere Mrs. Lamont had poured out a single
cup ,the butler appeared again, ushering
another guest, at the sight of whom Colonel
Lamont leaped to his feet in a fervour of
welcome.

The newcomer was a tall lady clad in a
dark green tartan skirt, a tweed coat and a
well-worn leather hat. She might have
been any age between forty and sixty, for
her face bore the marks rather of weather
than of time. In her big, gauntleted
hands she swung a stick like a shepherd's
crook, and her walk was that of one more
familiar with the moors than the pavements.
Mr. Burford once again removed his
bowler as he was presented to the Lady
Guidwillie of Waucht.

" Tea, as you love me, Kathie," she
16

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

said. " I've got an appetite like a hunter/'
and, seizing two buttered scones, she began
her meal.

Colonel Lamont detained the retreating
butler. " What about your luggage, Mr.
Burford ? " he asked.

" It's all here," said that gentleman,
handing over his little bag. :t I'm one
that travels light."

* You know something about food,
Kathie," observed Lady Guidwillie when
she had taken the edge off her hunger.

' I hope you don't think it wicked to
have tea in the old-fashioned way," said
the hostess to Mr. Burford. " We cut
off cream and sugar and cakes during the
war, but Arthur made me have them back
again."

" And quite right too. I am not going
to let the war or anything else come be-
tween me and a good tea."

Lady Guidwillie regarded him with
curiosity mingled with approval. He had
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suddenly risen and was staring towards the
west, where a very beautiful golden shim-
mer lay on the sea. " That beats cock-
fighting," was his tribute. Then he an-
nounced his wish to get to higher ground
to see what lay behind a certain woody
cape, and Phyllis was commandeered to
show him the road.

" Who on earth is he ? " asked Lady
Guidwillie, as soon as the two were out of
earshot.

" A Labour Member," said Mrs. La-
mont. " At least he was before the last
election. He is a friend of Martha Laven-
der. She says he's a saint."

c< Let me hear what sort of menagerie
you have brought me into. I have been
so bored at Waucht that I want to go into
society. First, who are the women ? I
think you told me that Martha was
coming ? "

" By to-morrow's boat. You like her,
don't you, Margaret ? >:
18

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" I love her. What is her latest form of
mischief -making ? "

" Oh, I don't agree. She never makes
mischief. She is always on the side of the
angels."

" The elves, you mean. Her father
didn't make a fortune in the Chicago
wheat-pit. Her father was Puck, and she
follows him in putting a girdle round the
earth. Next?"

" Ursula Aspenden."

!* Kind and silly. I make it my business
to shock her on every possible occasion."

" And Jeanne Sevenoaks."

" I retire. She'll do the shocking. Why
does she insist upon being called Jeanne ?
Her good father christened her Jane. He
was a most excellent man who used to
take one of Guidwillie's moors and made a
great deal of money in floorcloth some-
where near Falkirk. . . . Arthur, I hear
you are getting peevish. You are not like
Doris Cranlegh, I hope, who thinks that
19 c 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

the war has been fought in vain because
she can't get under-housemaids ? >]

Colonel Lamont smiled down on his old
friend. " I don't think I am peevish, but
I am a little out of my bearings. We all
are. I want something extra fine to^come
out of the business when the price has been
so high. You see, I cannot bear to think
that our best have died except for the
very best."

" No," said Lady Guidwillie, in what
for her was a very gentle tone. " No, that
is not to be borne."

" And since the whole nation has suf-
fered everyone must feel thesame."

" Has the whole nation suffered ? Some
have led very sheltered lives. Our own
class has paid nobly, and the poor, and the
lower middle class most of all. The little
tradesmen and professional men, I mean.
But there have been big ugly patches of
embusques and profiteers, and I do not see
why the working classes at home should
20

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

take so much credit to themselves. They
worked hard, no doubt, but they were
never in danger and had mighty fine wages,
while the soldiers flirted with death for a
shilling a day. I. wonder what your black-
coated friend says to that ? "

Mr. Burford and Phyllis were returning.
As he reached the arbour a footman
approached and asked him for his keys.

f< Never had any," he said cheerily.
" The old bag's got a broken lock."

21

II

In which the ears of the company are assailed by
sundry political phrases. .

LADY SEVENOAKS and Mrs. Lavender on
the evening of their arrival were walking
on the south terrace awaiting the summons
of the dressing-bell. They were a re-
markable contrast, the first tall, slim and
golden-haired, with somewhat languid blue
eyes, the second dark and small and alert
as a linnet. Both were libertines in speech,
the one with a talent for epigrammatic
extravagance, the other shrewd and racy
as one of her husband's cowpunchers.
That gentleman, indeed, was wont to
remark that he would back his Martha
to talk down a Democratic primary, and
that if her old-time namesake of the Scrip -

22

.

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

tures had been like her he reckoned Mary
would have quit business.

" Martha, darling," said Lady Seven-
oaks. "Did you ever — ever in your life — see
such a collection as Kathie has got to-
gether ? Her parties were always like a
table d'hote, but this beats — how do you
say it, darling ? "

" The band/' said Mrs. Lavender.

"It is so difficult for me, you know,
feeling as I do about George's career and
the shameful way he has been treated-
William Jacob, of course, is a true friend.
But it was Wyper and his horrid cranks
that wrecked our party. And the Labour
man — Bunyan, isn't it ? — I know just
how unpleasant he will be, talking nonsense
about the triumph of democracy and ex-
ulting in the destruction of what he calls
the Old Gang."

" Jimmie was beat himself," said the

other. " And he never exults. It isn't

n his nature. You had better be nice

23

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

about Jimmie, my dear, or you will rouse
the lurking savage in me. Remember I'm
only one generation removed from the
pioneer."

" Well, if he won't exult, Margaret
Guidwillie will. I can see it in her rude
old eyes. Some day soon I shall detest
her. Poor Guidwillie ! She never ap-
preciated him. He died of a surfeit of
haggis and -brown sherry — such an odd
death, darling, but so characteristic. George
always loved dining with him."

" She is the only woman in the world,"
said Mrs. Lavender, " that I think I am
a little afraid of. Your grand dames don't
worry me a cent. They're always acting
stylish, and if you kick away their little
pedestal they look foolish. But she's so
sure of herself that she never wants to
be anybody else. Twenty generations of
cold north-masters and high-handed
economy and the Presbyterian religion
give a woman something to stand on. I

24

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

feel new and raw before her, like a small,
impudent Israelite looking up at the walls
of Jericho/'

At that moment the dressing-bell
sounded, and as the two ladies moved
upstairs they encountered 'Mr. Albert
Wyper. He carried an attache case and
several weekly papers. He had a soft,
shapeless face, a humourless eye and an
untidy person.

" I have found a new theory of demo-
cracy in a French review/' he said, " and
am writing a letter to the New Republic
on the subject. It may interest you, Lady
Sevenoaks, for one of your husband's
speeches is the text."

" Martha," said that lady at her bed-
room door, " this is a very foolish world.
When I was a young girl Democracy
meant the Liberal majority, and was
chiefly mentioned in the House of Lords.
Then the Labour Party discovered the
word and it came to mean the Poor.

25

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Now it stands for everything which
any speaker likes and agrees with. If
we had come in, we should have been
triumphant Democracy ; as it is we are
effete aristocrats whom the democrats of
Carlton House Terrace and Eccleston
Square are going to slay. I wish we could
go back to Whig and Tory. They were
prettier words and meant something. I
know they will all talk about Democracy at
dinner and I shall be quite unwell."

But at dinner the high clear voice of Mrs.
Aspenden discoursed of history.

" I have been reading all about this
place," she announced. " Do you know
that St. Brandan came here on his great
voyage ? It is his Island of Sheep, where
he found the lamb for the Paschal sacrifice.
There is a beautiful passage about it
translated out of some old Latin chronicle.
He sailed, you remember, out of tempes-
tuous seas and came suddenly to a green
isle of peace with sheep feeding among the
26

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

meadows. And long after him the monks
had their cells on the west shore looking out
to the sunset. Who can tell me more
about it ? "

"You had better talk to Mr. Mac-
millan," said the host. :< He is the
minister, and you'll hear him preach to-
morrow."

:f He is the great scholar of these parts, "
Lady Guidwillie volunteered. " But he's
not very interested in the monks. He
prefers the ruffians from whom I descend —
the Northmen who came down on the
islands and cleared out the saints."

" How horrible ! " said Mrs. Aspenden.
" It sounds as if he were a Prussian."

Colonel Lamont laughed. " He'd be
amused if you told him that. In the war he
was chaplain to one of the Cameron batta-
lions, and he used to go over the top with
the men and lay about him. He's a good
man of his hands, Macmillan."

Mr. Christopher Normand was sitting
27

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

next to Lady Sevenoaks. He was a strongly-
built man of forty-five, whose clean-shaven
face had the high gloss given by much open
air and a good digestion. But for his
lameness he was a fine figure of masculine
strength. A curious sadness in his eye and
a delicacy about the mouth and chin
softened the impression of vigour given
by his bodily presence, and his brow was
rather that of a scholar and dreamer than of
a Yorkshire hunting squire.

" I like the story, " he said to his neigh-
bour. " To come out of stormy seas to a
green isle of quietness ! It is what we are
all seeking. Democracy is a great and
wonderful thing, but it does not make for
peace."

* There ! " exclaimed Lady Sevenoaks.
;< I knew it. Already we have reached that
odious subject. "

11 Which ? " asked the man. " Peace
or Democracy ? "

" She means Democracy," said Mrs.
28

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Lavender. " Jeanne is sore about it, for
it has jilted her."

" My dear Jaiie," said Lady Guidwillie,
"it is you who are inconstant. Six years
ago the word was never out of your mouth.
Whenever your party was in a hole you
declared it was fighting the battle of
Democracy. When you were told that
you had lost the support of sensible people,
you said that anyhow Democracy was on
your side. You once announced, I re-
member, that triumphant Democracy would
make short work of people like me . . .
Surely the thing can't have changed so
utterly in six years."

Lady Sevenoaks raised her languid eye-
lids.

" It has. Then it meant something.
Now it means precisely what a few thousand
different people choose to make it mean. It
is democracy to make Germany pay all our
bills, and democracy to forgive our enemies.
It is democratic to establish new nationali-
29

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

ties, and democratic to get rid of nationality
altogether. The whole of political debate
nowadays is one welter of crudities and
contradictions/'

The fine voice of Sir William Jacob was
heard. " We must stick to proved defini-
tions. For me it has been defined once
and for all by Lincoln — government of the
people by the people and for the people."

" An idle dream," said Mr. Normand.
" Of the people — yes. For the people-
perhaps in good time, when we have hanged
a few score political arrivistes. But by
the people — never. Government is an
expert business, like any other science. You
can choose your administrators from any
class, but they will still be a sect apart.
You can no more give all the people a share
in the practice of government than you can
make them all their own dentists."

Mr. Wyper's eye brightened, for this
kind of discussion was after his own heart.
1 That is an old difficulty, but it seems to

30

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

me to rest in a confusion of thought. The
people reign, but they do not govern
except at intervals. No. I don't mean
General Elections. Three-fourths of ad-
ministration they are content to entrust to
their chosen representatives without much
supervision. But in greater matters and
the things which affect them deeply they
exercise, and should exercise, a direct
control through many channels. " Our busi-
ness is to devise a machinery of government
which will make this direct control easy
and exact at the proper moments ... I
do not complain of the last election. A
nation is entitled to its hour of pique and
prejudice as I am permitted an occasional
fit of bad temper/'

" Democracy, then, may be Tory and
Radical and Socialist by turns and yet
remain Democracy ? " asked Mr. Nor-
mand.

" Certainly/'

" It is a comforting doctrine for the poli-

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

tician. But we ordinary folk want some-
thing more. We want it to be wise. What
is the good of making safe the world for
something called democracy unless that
thing is worthy of safety ? We are too
much concerned with machinery for doing
this or that, and we do not stop to consider
whether this or that is worth doing. We
are very German, you know."

" Surely," said Sir William Jacob, " it
is worth doing — to make the will of the
people prevail."

" I don't see why, unless it is a good will
and a reasonable will. If it is bad and
unjust I want to put every obstacle in the
way of its prevailing."

Sir William laughed. " So that is your
Tory Democracy, my dear Normand. It
is you who are the Prussian. You are
prepared to let the people govern only if
they behave as superior persons direct
them. That is not my notion of liberty."

Christopher Normand demurred . * ' The

32

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

sovereignty of the people is a fact, and only
a fool would try to upset it. But I don't
see why it should be necessarily a good
thing. It may be extraordinarily muddle-
headed and perverse, if the people are
foolish. That's my objection to the com-
mon eulogists of Democracy. The sys-
tem is the best or the worst according
to the way it is worked, but it has no in-
trinsic guarantee of goodness. When it's
good it's very very good, and when it is
bad it's horrid."

Mr. Burford had so far not spoken a
word, but had eaten his dinner with much
contentment. Now he observed that it
was high time politicians stopped being
mealy-mouthed about the People. " We
can't get on/' he said, " without a bit of
rough-tonguing when we deserve it.
There's been a deal too much of the cap-
in-hand business. Working folks don't
like it."

"I sat for a great working-class con-

33 D

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

stituency for many years/' said Sir William.
" I found they responded most readily to
any appeal to their higher instincts . . .
But I confess that these higher instincts
seem for the moment to be submerged/'

" Not a bit of it," said Mrs. Lavender.
" They're out on the bust. It does them
good to kick up their heels now and then,
the same as you and me."

The picture of Sir William Jacob kicking
up his heels in the company of Mrs.
Lavender was too much for the gravity of
Mr. Burfprd. He laughed merrily, but
there was no response from the other
guests. Lady Sevenoaks was fretful, Mr.
Normand sunk in apparently painful medi-
tations, Mr. Wyper cross, and Sir William
abstracted, while the host and hostess had
had their worst fears confirmed by the pre-
ceding conversation. Dinner ended in a
mood of dismal resignation to fate.

In the drawing-room later Mr. Burford
sat beside Phyllis.

34

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

I hate everybody's pessimism," said the
girl.

" They ain't pessimistic/' said the man.
" They're only puzzled, You see, none
of them have been fighting, except the
Colonel."

;< But you're cheerful, and you weren't
fighting."

" No," he said sadly. " I wasn't. They
wouldn't have me even for a Base job.
My eyesight's nothing to boast of."

" And yet you don't stand aside and
prophesy darkly about the People, as if
they were some new kind of influenza."

" I'd have to get outside my skin to do
it," he said, tilting up his spectacles and
peering at her with his curious, merry
eyes. "I'm one of them, just an ordinary
sample of the forty million working folk
they're so scared at. You wouldn't ask
me to get scared at myself ? "

35

Ill

An Island Sabbath morning. The Minister of the
parish mounts the chaire de vente. Two young men
and a Labour leader enliven a depressed gathering.

THE Sabbath morning dawned blue and
shining, with that delicate clear light which
is found only in an island set amid miles
of sea. A light wind came from the main-
land, bringing scents of spring. Under
ordinary circumstances Colonel Lamont
would have been in good spirits and would
have whistled his one tune, " Auld Lang
Syne," while dressing, but the memory of
the depression of the previous evening
weighed him down.

" We've got a nice collection of Job's
comforters/' he informed his wife.

" I can't understand it," was the plain-

36

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

tive reply. " Even Ursula, who used to be
so sweet, is difficult."

" Burford is the only fellow who isn't
afraid to laugh. I like him immensely.
He reminds me of an old collie my father
had when I was a child. Same jolly,
trusty eyes."

' I think Jeanne is in a very bad temper,"
said his wife. " Poor darling, she has much
to try her. But she really is very rude.
Ursula was telling us about the Havering
engagement, and said they were touchingly
happy. Jeanne said in her gentlest voice,
which always frightens me, * Yes, I saw
them last week lunching at the Ritz. As
happy as two little birds. And such ugly
little birds, dear.' "

So tonic was the air, however, that the
company at breakfast were in better spirits.
Mr. Burford, who had been early abroad,
had some colour in his face, and his stub-
born thatch of hair was in more than its
usual disorder.

37

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Mrs. Aspenden had a grievance. The
night before she had inquired as to the
whereabouts of the church, and, being
uninstructed in the theological differences
of her country, had set out according to
custom for early service. She had been
sadly disappointed.

" I found a square building like a furni-
ture repository," she complained. ' It
was locked, and there was nobody about
except a man in a garden, a man in his
shirt sleeves smoking a pipe."

" That would be Macmillan," said
Colonel Lamont.

" The parson ! " exclaimed Mrs. Aspen-
den in horror. ' Why wasn't his church
open, if only that one might pray in
it ? "

:< Dear Ursula is very High," whispered
Lady Sevenoaks to her neighbour, who
happened to be Mr. Wyper. " She finds
spiritual consolation in attending private
theatricals before breakfast." Mr. Wyper,

38

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

who professed agnosticism, received this
piece of irreverence with sympathy.

" I did a bit of praying my self, " said Mr.
Burford. " But I did it on the lawn. You
don't want churches on a May morning."

It was weather which did not permit of
lethargy, and when the Lamonts appeared
equipped for church they found among
their guests an unexpected desire to ac-
company them. Even Mr. Wyper set
down his attache case, from which he
was rarely separated, and looked for his
hat. Lady Sevenoaks was late and was
therefore compelled to accompany Mrs.
Aspenden, who was driven by her con-
science to attend some place of worship
in spite of the irregularities of the smoking
parson.

The minister was a man of fifty-five,
short in stature, black-bearded, and as
strong as a Highland bull. His battered
brown complexion and far-sighted grey
eyes gave him the air of a deep-sea skipper

39

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

masquerading as a landsman. He was a
bachelor who had led a peaceful life of
honest parochial work, varied with ex-
cursions into scholarship and fishing when-
ever fish were to be caught, till the war had
swept him to France for four strenuous
years. His voice, as happens sometimes
with such a figure, was one of great sweet-
ness and melody, and he spoke pure
English with a soft Gaelic intonation.

In the bare little kirk, through whose
plain glass windows might be seen the
wheeling of gulls and plovers on the moor,
there was but a slender congregation.
Most waited for the Gaelic service in the
afternoon, for Mr. Macmillan's English
discourses were sometimes hard for his
parishioners to understand. The big sheep-
farmer from Lith, having had a heavy week
at Oban, was soon asleep. The family
from the Kylanish inn had new clothes
and sat in self-conscious pride ; the inn-
keeper's son, late of the Argylls, was self-
40

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

conscious too, for he was a hero just
returned to his native land. A few fisher-
men and herds made up the rest of the
flock, save for Colonel Lament's party.

Mr. Macmillan, taking as his text the
First Epistle of St. Peter, the first chapter,
the twelfth verse and the last clause of the
verse, " Which things the angels desire to
look into," discoursed upon the present
discontents and asked questions.

Everyone, he said, knew roughly for
what we had been fighting. We had been
resisting Germany's claim to impose her
will upon the world. We should have
been right in our opposition, even had that
will been a good will ; but as a matter of
fact it was in the main a bad will. That
point, at any rate, was clear.

But now came the difficulty. We were
in danger of labelling every part of Ger-
many's creed as evil and of affirming as our
own creed the direct opposite. For ex-
ample—

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Germany stood for the super-nationality,
the big co-ordinating union of peoples.
Bad, no doubt, as she conceived -it. But
was the principle wrong ? The alternative
was a chaos of feeble statelets based on
trivial differences — economically weak, poli-
tically unstable. Were we prepared to
put all the emphasis on self-determination ?
If we did, we should not get freedom, but
anarchy. We should undo the long work
of civilisation.

Again, Germany stood in an arrogant
and offensive way for nationality itself,
fidelity, as Burke said, to the platoon in
which men are born. We entered the war
for the same principle, because Germany
had pressed hers so far that it had become
incompatible with the existence of any
other nationalism. But some of the oppo-
sition to Germany came from people to
whom the whole notion of nationality
was repugnant. During the war we made
a pet of the extreme German Socialists
42

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

who would divide the world horizontally
by classes. Let us beware lest in opposing
Germany's foolish exaggeration we denied
a doctrine which lay at the root of civilisa-
tion, and allied ourselves with civilisa-
tion's arch enemies. " Non tali aumlio"
said Mr. Macmillan.

Lastly, Germany stood for something
not wholly material or base. She had an
ideal, cross-grained and perverted in the
hearts of many of her classes, but amongst
simple folk capable of affording an honest
inspiration. At its worst it was something
not utterly without moral value, something
which involved renunciation and sacrifice.
It was nobler than mere loaves and fishes.
She believed in the historic state, enriched
with the long-descended gifts of timej
though in her folly she mistook the
mechanical for the organic. But were
there no mechanists among her opponents ?
There were those, even in Britain, who
sought to defeat Germany only to replace

43

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

her blunder by one of their own — to set
up a British or American or French world-
mechanism instead of a Teutonic. The
selfish rich on the one side and the crude
demagogue on the other both dreamed of a
Prussianism not a whit nobler and far less
well-considered than Germany's. " For
God's sake," said the preacher, " do not
let us forsake the complex legacy of the past,
with its equipoise and balance and deep
foundations, for a jerry-built usurpation of
some raw new class. Let us oppose
Germany's darkness, not her gleams of
light. Those who would base the world
on a shallow Marxian materialism are more
Prussian than the Prussians. The Junker
creed has more idealism than the Spartacist,
and the Russians who fought for a corrupt
Czardom were better men than the Bolshe-
viks who fight for their own pockets."

Mr. Macmillan, conscious of an honour-
able record in the war, thus paid his tribute
to our late enemies. Himself a determined

44

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Calvinist, he now said a good word for the
Church of Rome.

:< I have no particular weakness for the
Vatican/' he observed, <!< but, again, let
us fight against darkness and not against
light. The Roman Church stands for
much which the world dare not lose. We
have been irritated by its apparent weakness
and time-serving, but let us consider its
strength. It is for the historic bequest of
Europe against crude novelties, for a
spiritual interpretation of life against a
barren utilitarianism, for dogma and ascer-
tained truth against the opportunist, the
sciolist and the half-baked. Those of us
who believe in God cannot do without its
aid. By all means let us condemn its
blunders in diplomacy and politics, but do
not let us abuse it as a dead hand on a living
world. For, if it is dead, then the world
also is dying."

" I appeal to you/' he concluded, " to
cultivate honesty and scrupulousness of

45

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

mind. In the present welter of ideas we
may drift towards false gods. If we make
our creed the exact opposite of all that
Germany strove for, then without doubt we
shall slip into a worse kind of Germanism,
shoddier, narrower, falser than that which
we have fought in the field. Let us try to
forget political tactics and do a little serious
thinking about principles."

This appeal had no effect upon the sheep-
farmer from Lith, who slumbered through
it, or on the young ladies from the inn, who
did not understand it. The native con-
gregation were waiting for the good gospel
in Gaelic in the afternoon. But Colonel
Lament's party listened with an attention
which few of them had been in the habit
of according to a sermon.

As they walked home by the white moor-
road Mrs. Lavender approached her
hostess.

' Tell me, Kathie dear, when are the
boys coming ? You said you expected
46

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

George Maldwin and my little cousin
Penrose."

" They should be here after dinner.
They get a boat from Rona. George was
to motor there this "morning. "

" I hope you won't mind, but I asked
Penrose to bring on D. C. Jonas. He was in
Glasgow for an engineers' conference, and
I thought he would be the better for your
sea breezes. Besides I want you all to see
him. An hour or two of Dan will do you
highbrows a deal of good."

Mrs. Lamont wrinkled her brows as if
personally affected by the word, !< De-
lighted, my dear. But won't he make us
more depressed ? Jeanne is so angry with
the Labour people, and none of us seem to
be in the best of spirits."

" Oh, Dan won't depress you," said Mrs.
Lavender. " He'll cheer, you up. We
need it too, for Jimmie is no earthly use.
He's so happy here that he talks no more
than a graven image."

47

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Luncheon was a silent meal, and there-
after, when the party sorted itself into
groups for the afternoon walk, Christopher
Normand chose a book from the library and
settled himself with it in the arbour. He
was in a sad reflective mood, and the work,
which was the " Homilies " of St. Gregory
the Great, fitted his temper. He found one
sentence in it which so pleased him that he
transcribed it into a note-book. ;t If we
yet love such a world as this, it is not joys
but wounds that we love."

Mr. Normand about tea-time had come to
the conclusion, from the examination of his
own mind, that at the moment there was a
deplorable lack of good-humour in the
world. His conclusion was not weakened
by the return of the walking parties. Lady
Sevenoaks by some mischance had been
paired with Mr. Wyper, who had treated her
to that peculiar form of patronage which
made him unpopular with his own sex.
His habit was to lay down some thesis and

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

invite criticisms, and to receive such criti-
cisms with the smiling condescension with
which a governess greets the crude efforts
of a backward child. He had what is
called a " mobile " countenance, and his
eyebrows and eyes were in constant move-
ment, so that Lady Guidwillie had occasion
to observe to her host that she wished
something could be done to make the man
demobilise his face.

Mrs. Lavender, too, was out of temper
with Mr. Burford. He, alone of the party ?
was in the best of spirits, but he refused to
communicate the secret of his content. He
had hunted enthusiastically for the eggs of
the black-headed gull when Mrs. Lavender
would fain have had him show his intellec-
tual paces before her friends. On the
subject of the sermon of the morning he had
refused to be drawn, only remarking that
" he liked the look of the chap, and meant to
have a good yarn with him some day

soon.'

49

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

At dinner, which, owing to the mildness
of the air, took place out of doors on the
south terrace, Mr. Wyper was much dis-
posed to argument.

" I had hoped," he said, " to see Mac-
millan here this evening. Isn't it the cus-
tom in country houses that the parson dines
on Sunday night ? "

He was informed by Colonel Lamont
that Mr. Macmillan had strict views on the
observance of the Sabbath and would as
soon think of dining out on that day as of
setting up a confessional. " He's coming
here one night soon if he gets back in time
from the fishing. You can't depend upon
him if the sea trout are running in Lith
Water."

u He interests me enormously," conti-
nued Mr. Wyper. " An honest obscuran-
tist ! His point of view is, of course,
very much that of our late enemies. Had
everyone been as honest as he the war
would have died away in the first month

50

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

from very shame. The school of thought
to which I belong is the extreme antithesis
of Germanism, but we opposed the war
because we knew very well that this country
did not fight with clean hands. Macmillan,
you tell me, was ardently bellicose and
served in the field, and now that he has won
he is in terror lest his victory should be
complete. He realises that he has been
fighting against his own creed. It is all
very typical of our national confusion of
thought."

Sir William Jacob shook his head. !< I
see no confusion. I think wre had some
very good sense this morning — some truths
which to me personally were very dis-
quieting. The parson's advice was to keep
our heads clear, and, because we had to
smash a perversion, not to be betrayed into
a denial of the truths which had been per-
verted. That seems to be plain enough."

* That is a fair debating point, Jacob,"
said Mr. Wyper. :' But it has no substance.

51 E 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

My argument is that these doctrines must
from their very nature be liable to constant
perversion. So soon as you accept nation-
ality and the historic state and the large
political organism you slip insensibly into
the vice of Prussianism. Will anyone
deny that our British Imperialists held in
reality the German faith, and only missed
its enormities because they were less able
and logical than the Kaiser and his
Marshals ? "

All, including Sir William Jacob, seemed
disposed to deny it, but their hostess
anticipated them.

" We shall have Mr. Philip Lenchard
here on Tuesday. We had better leave the
British Empire to be defended by him."

" I sincerely hope so," said Mrs, Laven-
der pensively. " Philip promised me to let
nothing stand in the way. But you know,
my dear, he is in serious danger of being
made a god. His visit to India was far
too successful. He is just that mixture of

52

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Herbert Spencer and Buddha that Orientals
love. I hear that there is quite a powerful
body already which worships him and burns
Blue-books in his honour."

" I wish," said Lady Sevenoaks, " I
wish that some of our politicians could
be deified. It would be such a dignified
way of getting rid of them. They won't
be satisfied with ordinary peerages, so we
might make them Divi. It would be a very
complete way of kicking them upstairs,
for of course it would be sacrilege if they
came back to politics. Mr. Hepplewhite,
for example. I simply cannot tell you the
mess that man made of things in Paris.
George says they imported hundreds of
clerks, and, took hotels and stuffed them
with experts on every kind of irrelevant
question like the origin of the Kurds and
the land system of Nebuchadnezzar, and
the whole shepherded by nosy young men
in big spectacles, which is the new Foreign
Office type. George says the French began

53

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP
by giggling at us and then grew very

cross/'

" It seems," said Colonel Lamont dole-
fully, " that we have won the war and
are doing our best to lose all the fruits of
it. Nothing has gone right since that
infernal Armistice."

The tone was so dejected that Christopher
Normand's sense of comedy was stirred.
" Cheer up, old man," he said. :< In time
we'll get used to the horrors of this Peace
to end peace . . . We're all getting too
pessimistic. After all, none of our troubles
are new. Read the Memoirs of a hundred
years ago and see the fools our people made
of themselves at European Congresses —
hordes of smart women and flimsy bureau-
crats cumbering the busy men. Even
our Labour troubles, every one of them,
have a long ancestry. I am prone to the
dumps myself, and the best cure is to read
a little history."

Mr. Normand had raised his voice, as his

54

I

hat

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

habit was when he was in earnest, and
three new-comers had approached the table
ere the diners were aware of their presence.
Two were tall young men ; one was small
and middle-aged, with a thin face, fiery
red hair, and restless brown eyes. This
last caught the concluding words of Mr.
Normand, for he signalised his advent with
loud approval.

" 'Ear ! 'Ear ! " he said. " That's well
spoken. What we all want is to learn a bit
of 'ist'ry."

While they were being welcomed by the
host and hostess Lady Sevenoaks asked Mrs.
Lavender their names.

" The tallest is George Maldwin — Stan-
bury-Maldwin. A great friend of mine,
and the best man to hounds in Northamp-
tonshire."

" A Guardsman, I suppose," said Lady
Sevenoaks. " They all have double names
and places in the Midlands. "

c The other boy is my cousin, Penrose

55

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Mac Andrew. He is just back from keeping
watch on the Rhine."

" The third ? " asked Lady Sevenoaks.
" I have seen him before, but where and
when I can't remember. Probably on
some platform."

" Not on your George's, I bet. That's
D. C. Jonas."

Lady Sevenoaks exclaimed, " The
Labour man ! Fm going home to-morrow.
Why in the name of goodness does Kathie
invite all these people here just when we're
tired and want cheering ? "

!f Because," said Mrs. Lavender, " they
seem to be the only cheerful folks left alive
in this little old world. I asked her to get
Dan and Jimmie here. You highbrows
want a lot of talking to. You may call me
every kind of fool, my dear, if they don't
turn out to be the cheeriest members in
this congregation of undertakers."

IV

In which two Leaders of the People essay the sports
of the idle rich, Mr. Jonas expounds the meaning of
Bolshevism and the temperament of the British
nation.

COLONEL LAMONT examined his corre
spondence at breakfast with a puzzled air.

' We must be getting very popular
people," he told his wife. " Malone pro-
poses to come here on Wednesday for a
day or two and to bring with him the
French Army Commander for whom I did
liaison on the Somme. I never thought to
entertain old Morier in this island. I must
say I am uncommonly pleased. Do you
know Mr. Malone ? " he asked Mrs.
Lavender.

" Merryweather ! Why yes. He was

57

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

a beau of mine before I met William and
married beneath me. He's a bright boy.
Say, Penrose, what do you think of Merry-
weather Malone coming here ? "

The young American, who had a curi-
ously solemn face and very bright,
humorous eyes, ejaculated u Fine " and
continued his breakfast.

" And, Martha dear," said the hostess,
" Mr. Lenchard arrives to-morrow, god
or no. I suppose he will behave like ordi-
nary people."

" Indeed he won't. I can promise you
that, Kathie. But he eats the same food as
you and me."

" Thank Heaven, there's plenty of it,"
said the Colonel. " That is the advantage
of having your own land nowadays. But
the cellar has been shockingly neglected
for four years."

' You needn't worry about that," said
Mrs. Lavender. " Merry weather has gone
dry like the rest of the U.S.A. Your

58

,

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

French General won't want more than a
glass of white wine, and Philip is all for
barley water. Pour your cellar into the sea,
Arthur, and join the ranks of the bone-
dry. You'll be a happier and a healthier
man. And, you boys, quit the flowing
bowl, or you'll get whipped at polo every
time."

:' I am waiting to take on America," said
Mr. Maid win, " when she has given up
alcohol for ten years and then rediscovers it.
It will be like the South Sea Islanders when
they had measles. She will have lost the
gpwer to resist it."

"*" And that's the youth of England ! "
the lady exclaimed, flinging up her hands.
!< For the Lord's sake, don't corrupt little
Penrose. I promised his mother I would
look after his morals."

The arrival of the young men had worked
a change in the party comparable to the
introduction of effervescent salts into flat
water. It was a clear, fresh morning, and

59

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

everyone sought the open air. Mr. Maid-
win, who announced that he had long ago
resolved to make a pet of himself after the
war, arranged with Mr. Jonas for a trip in
their host's racing cutter. Mr. Burford,
Penrose MacAndrew, and Phyllis proposed
a day's fishing on the Lith, while Christo-
pher Normand and Colonel Lamont were
to try for brown trout in the Black Loch.

" I'll come with you, George," said Mrs.
Lavender. ;< If you drown Dan and there's
nobody else on the scene, they'll say it was
a plot of Capital to weaken Labour."

"No they won't," said Mr. Maldwin.
" I voted Labour at the last election and
I'm going to join the party as soon as they
clean up their stable and engage a better
class of jock."

' You'll come to a bad end, dearie. Your
kind of demagogue always gets knifed in the
flower of its youth."

Mr. Maldwin, as they set off for the
shore, was heard to remark that a pro-
Go

I

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

longed sojourn in the Ypres Salient had
made him a trifle blase about murders.

That evening dinner was deferred, for
the fishers were late, and it was not till the
stroke of nine that the sailing party returned
with ravenous appetites and deeply sun-
burned faces. The tremendous news was
announced that Mr. Burford had caught
a salmon and had landed it after a long run
during which he had twice fallen into the
river . Phyllis recounted the exploit .

" He stuck to it like a Trojan and did
everything I told him quite right, but his
reel jammed and he had to play the fish
with his hands. I have just had them
bandaged, Aunt Kathie, and he's having
a bath and changing/'

The sportsman entered the room and was
overwhelmed with laughing congratula-
tions.

E< My word," he said, beaming on the
company, " that was fun all right. I
haven't enjoyed myself so much since I was
61

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

a kid. It wasn't so much me catching a
salmon as the salmon catching me. I
would walk a hundred miles to get that
thrill again when the reel screams. Dan,
I'm feeling on the side of what you'd call
the idle rich to-night. "

" 'Ear, 'Ear/' said Mr. Jonas. " I've
been 'aving the time of my life too."

" They nearly drowned me," said Mrs.
Lavender. " You never saw such a pair
of mountebanks. Twice George made the
sheet fast and left the tiller to me, while
he and Dan sat and argued like coster-
mongers in the bottom of the boat. It's
a mercy my old dad taught me something
about sailing."

" I wouldn't have left you in charge if I
hadn't known all about you," said Mr.
Maldwin appreciatively.

!< It hasn't done your complexion any
good, Martha dear," said Lady Sevenoaks.

Presently, when the edge had been taken
off healthy appetites, Mr. Jonas began to
62

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

look round him and encountered the eyes
of Lady Sevenoaks. She had had a dull
day, for she had stayed at home to write
letters and had been condemned to the
society of Mr. Wyper, who had remained
behind for the same purpose. Mr. Wyper 's
conversation had roused her many political
grievances, and she was prepared to wreak
her vengeance on Mr. Jonas.

' They tell me you say that Liberalism
is dead/' she began.

" Not a bit of it," he replied cheerfully.
:< Nothing of that kind ever dies. But
the old Liberal Party is dead, if that's what
you mean."

1 You call yourself a moderate man,"
said the lady sadly. " And so I suppose do
Christopher and Mr. Burford. And yet
you are happy at the prospect of the
country being left without a middle party
and brigaded into two extremes."

1 What do you mean by a middle party ? "
Mr. Normand asked.

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" A party of mediation," was the answer.
* You have Labour on one side making
extreme demands and Capital on the other
indisposed to yield. To mediate you must
have a party which sees the justice of both
sides — and the blunders. Otherwise you
have a struggle of the * haves ' and ' have
nots,' and the victory of either is ruin to
the nation. "

Mr. Normand lifted his eyebrows. ' Is
that a fair description of the Liberal Party
of the last twelve years ? "

" It was what we aimed at/' said Sir
William Jacob. "If we failed it was
because we were too successful."

" That's* a true word," said Mr. Jonas.
" You failed because you waxed fat and
kicked. You were the * 'aves ' and you
prided yourselves on your cleverness in
getting, and the people who believed in
idealism finally got sick of you. I've been
in Glasgow and talking to our chaps there,
and I asked them to explain the downfall

64

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

of Liberalism in Scotland. I took Scot-
land as a test case, for you were at your
strongest 'ere. This is what they told me.
Scotland, they said, 'ad been Liberal ever
since the days of John Knox and the
Covenanters, and when there was a chance
of the thing dying Gladstone came along
and gave it a new lease of life. Scotsmen
were Liberal because they were conserva-
tive and liked the old ways. Their creed
was traditionalism touched with emotion.
They liked old things and they liked
also to think that they were on the side
of the angels. Why shouldn't they ? Well,
the great Liberal Party became the most
powerful Government of modern times. It
developed a most efficient caucus and made
a speciality of every electioneering dodge.
You prided yourself on it and that was the
beginning of your downfall. Then came
the spectacle of your stalwarts, who wanted
the land for the people and scorned the
'Ouse of Lords, scrambling after peerages

65 F

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

and setting up as county magnates as soon
as they got them. Jock Willison was telling
me about one of them who 'was all for
abolishing squires and lords, and the last
Jock 'eard of him was a picture in the papers
showing him in his peer's robes and describ-
ing the welcome of the tenantry when he
returned to his new ancestral seat. That
about finished the job, with the Jelp of
Marconi. And now the 'ard 'eaded Scot is
taking none of your Liberals. He wants
honest Tory or honest Labour/'

Lady Sevenoaks sighed. " There's
some truth in that. Many of our people
were the vulgar est of God's creatures. But
they were no worse, surely, than the
Unionists."

" Oh, yes, they were," said Mr. Jonas,
" for the poor old Unionists didn't make
any noble professions. There's no special
'arm in going to a casino, I take it. But if
you find the President of the Anti -gambling
League punting you get a bit sick."
66

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" Then do I understand you to say that
the revolt against Liberalism is a revolt
against middle-class vulgarity ? " asked
Sir William.

" Partly, and partly a revolt against silli-
ness. Your party got into the 'abit of not
arguing fair and square, but referring to
* Liberal principles ' as if they were a new
Ten Commandments. God knows what
they meant by them, but that 'abit was the
worst kind of Toryism. And then you

talked a lot of slush" Take the old "

and Mr. Jonas mentioned a well-known
weekly paper.

Mr. Wyper, who was one of that jour-
nal's most valued contributors, bridled.
" I deny that utterly. It endeavours to
explore every question from the standpoint
of eager, vital people who are striving to
make a new world. It is the only organ
left of serious political thought."

Mr. Jonas, whose face was scarlet from
the sea winds, was not easily silenced.

67 F 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" I make no personal allusions, and I
ask everybody's pardon, but I don't see
where the eagerness and vitality come in,
unless it's eager to be as pettish as an old
maid and vital to be always on the edge of
tears. You won't argue well if you're
'aving 'ysterics all the time. I've got tired
of a paper that's shaken in every column by
a passion of sobs."

" You're going too far, Dan," said Mr.
Burford. " There's a heap of good writing
in it, and you know you read it yourself
every week."

" I do, but I never shut it up without
feeling what a funny little cellar it lives in.
No, Jimmie. You're not going to reform
the world by being spiteful and tearful.
The people of this country ain't one or the
other."

" All that's beside the point," said Lady

Sevenoaks. " Of course we had our faults

— bad faults. But how is the country to

get on without us ? You must have a half-

68

I .;

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

way house where both sides can meet.
Otherwise you have two extremes which
never touch. And these extremes will tend
to grow more extreme in the absence of a
trait cT union, till you have Bolshevism
on one side and Junkerdom on the
other."

Mr. Jonas refused a glass of port, leaned
his elbows on the table, and collected the
eyes of the company.

" We'd better 'ave this out," he said.
" Lady Sevenoaks, you're what the Ameri-
cans call a * stand-patter,' begging your
pardon. You still think of the nation as
split up into classes each utterly different
in temperament and outlook. That's
where you're wrong. You Liberals are
the worst reactionaries. You 'aven't any
notion of the ordinary man. Nothing like
as much as the Tory. Why, in my old part
of the world people used to ' sir ' the Liberal
member and touch their 'ats to him, while
everybody called the Tory candidate by his
69

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Christian name. There ain't much in that,
but it's a parable of the way you have got
into the 'abit of cast-iron class notions.
This war has shown that all classes are much
the same at bottom. Ask the soldiers.
They've learned more about the British
people in the trenches than you'd learn in
politics in a hundred years."

Mr. Maldwin signified his assent.
" That's true of the two things I know
anything about — sport and fighting. I
always guessed it, but I learned it pretty
thoroughly in France. That's why I'm
for the ordinary man, who's the chap
that won the war. I'd be for the Labour
Party to-morrow if it would buck up and
reform its stable. It ain't the horses
that's to blame, it's the poor stamp of
jock."

" What I say," continued Mr. Jonas,

" is that so long as we go on talking about

classes as if they were things established by

Eaven since the creation of the world,

70

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

we are asking for trouble. You'll never get
to understand about folks in a different
walk of life from you if you think of them as
somehow different by nature. Things are
easier in America, because they fell me that
classes are fluid there and their boundaries
are always shifting. That's so, Mrs.
Lavender ? "

" True/1 said the lady. " William was
raised in a shack in Idaho, and if the present
rate of taxation goes on my boys will be
getting back to that shack. "

;< I'm not speaking about classes/' said
Lady Sevenoaks. " I am speaking about
creeds. Do you mean to deny that Bol-
shevism is rampant in British labour to-
day ? "

" Of course I do. It's a bad 'abit to call
a thing names when you don't understand
it. Of course the workers are restless,
same as everybody else ; and since they
'ave won the war they want a square
deal with the fruits of peace. But they

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

ain't Bolsheviks — barring a few dozen
miscreants who should be in gaol. What's
Bolshevism anyhow ? Judging by the
Russian specimens, apart from their liking
for 'olesale 'omicide, it seems to mean a
general desire to pull things up by the
roots. Well, that ain't the line of the
British working man. He is the soundest
conservative on the globe, and what he
wants is to get his roots down deeper.
In other countries the poor man has
a grip on the soil. In this country he
'asn't 'ad that for two hundred years.
We are over-industrialised, as the saying is ;
but a root's got to be found somewhere,
and he finds it in his Unions. That's why
he's so jealous about them, and quite
right too. He wants to find security and
continuity somewhere. Now that's the
opposite of Bolshevism. The true Bol-
sheviks are the intellectuals that want to
make him only a bit of scientific termin-
ology, as Jock Willison says, and the pluto-
72

1

r»rat«s tVi

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

crats that want to make him a cog in a cold-
'earted machine. They're the folk that
are trying to upturn the foundations of
things/'

" I should define Bolshevism differently,"
said Sir William. " Its chief motive seems
to be the establishment of the tyranny of
a class. It's the same thing as Prussianism,
only its class is the proletariat."

" I'm dead-sick of that word ' prole-
tariat,' " said Mr. Jonas. " It's part of
the bastard scientific jargon that's come
over from Germany. P wouldn't call my
dog such a 'ard name. But you're right,
Sir William. Only what I'm arguing is
that Bolshevism is a very old thing, and
that there isn't much of it in the British
working classes. I'll tell you who were
'earty Bolsheviks in their day. The Man-
chester School and the Utilitarians. They
wanted to run the world mainly for the
benefit of one class, and they considered
only material ends. It's true they didn't

73

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

dabble in crime, but that was because they
were rich, frock-coated gents and didn't
need to."

Sir William Jacob was far from pleased
at Mr. Jonas's assent to his definition,
followed as it was by this unexpected
illustration. " You misread the Man-
chester School very gravely, Mr. Jonas, "
he said.

."Why?" asked Mr. Jonas. " They
objected to all war, except their own kind.
So does Lenin. They asked about every-
thing only what cash value it produced. So
did Marx and his lot. They chose a
fraction of the State and said everything
must serve its interests, seeing that it was
the People and wisdom would die with it.
So does Trotsky. What more do you
want ? "

" The great Cobden " began Sir

William, but he was interrupted.

" Cobden," cried Mr. Jonas, with some-
thing approaching passion. " Cobden was

74

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

the biggest Bolshevik there's ever been.
I reckon 'im the 'orridest character in all
'ist'ry. I was reading a bit 'about 'im the
other day, a letter he wrote during the
Crimean War, where he fairly gloats
because what he calls the governing class
was losing sons at Balaclava. He 'adn't the
stuff in 'im to love his country, but he could
'ate all right. I'll give you a definition
of Bolshevism, Sir William. It's the
creed that's based on 'ate. And if you
think that's common among the British
people, you greatly misjudge your country-

men."

Mr. Jonas, as if conscious that he had
been too fervent, sat back in his chair and
spoke in a quieter voice, that soothing voice
which aforetime had calmed great gather-
ings at great crises.

* We are going through a difficult time,
I don't deny. But it will come all right if
we remember two things. The first is
never to 'ate, for it's un-English and un-

75

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Christian and don't pay. The other is to
remember 'ist'ry and to realise that none
of our troubles are new. Our grandfathers
'ad them, but they faced up to them like
men, and didn't confuse their 'eads with
bad science."

" It's like," he continued, " a time of
thaw. The bitter binding winter of war is
over. War was a cruel thing, and nipped
young life and killed the weaklings and put
a stop to growth. But its frosts were
exhilarating too, and keyed us all up.
Now we're in the thaw, with muddy roads
and dripping skies, and our tempers are
getting short. It's a 'ard time, for there's
neither the tonic of winter nor the comfort
of summer, but only grey weather over a
grey world. But you can't 'ave Spring
without it. That's what we 'ave to remem-
ber. And the time is coming when the
sun will shine again and we will walk in
green fields."

A strange gentleness and beauty had
76

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

>me into the speaker's rugged face. Sud-
lenly he began to laugh.

Dearie me/' he said, <:< I'm getting
eloquent. 'Ow's that for a peroration ?
[t only wants a reference to the sunrise and

ie 'ills of Wales to be up to one of the
'.M.'s efforts."

77

\

A wet day. The ladies proffer their cures for the
present discontents. Mr. Normand discourses on
Liberty. An Apostle of Empire arrives.

BREAKFAST next morning was made re-
markable by the cheerfulness of Mrs.
Lamont. Usually of a shy and timid habit,
as of a dove in a world of eagles, she now
blossomed into a sober merriment. She
rallied Mr. Burford on his damaged hands,
and Mr. Jonas on his garb, for that gentle-
man, resolved to emulate his friend's
fishing exploits on the Lith, had borrowed
a pair of Colonel Lament's trench boots
and a shooting-coat which hung loose on
his shoulders.

c Your ruthless optimism last night has
gone to Kathie's head," Lady Sevenoaks
told the latter.

78

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Yes," said the hostess, ' I was so
teered with what you told me. I know
little of the working classes, apart from
our own people here, and the papers are
full of such disquieting stories. "

Mr. Jonas, who was standing up eating
porridge in imitation of his host, and
making rather a messy job of it, set down
his plate and announced that breakfast was
not the time to talk politics, but that he
was bound to issue a warning.

" Our people are sound at Jeart," he
said, " but the situation is disquieting right
enough. They're asking for big changes in
their life and work, and they mean to 'ave
them. There's plenty of folk in the country
who won't be got to understand what the
workers want, and plenty who understand
and won't agree to it. That means a fight,
and whether it's a decent fight or a bitter,
long battle depends just upon the amount
of good temper and good sense both sides
put into it. I 'aven't any doubt which side

79

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

will win, but I want it to be a fair win,
leaving no bad blood behind it. The mis-
chief is that unless the masters show a good
spirit they'll get up the backs of the men,
and the men will make demands that
'aven't justice in them. That's always
apt to 'appen. So a lot depends on you,
my friends. The People aren't very clever
and they're pretty slow, but when they
make up their mind and get earnest they're
always right. It isn't going to be pleasant
for everybody to admit this, and no amount
of nice phrases will get over the unpleasant-
ness."

Mrs. Lament's face fell, but Mr. Jonas
was relentless.

"'Then there's the trouble abroad and
all the mess of wickedness that the 'Un has
created. There's plenty of Bolshevism
about in Europe — real Bolshevism — and
we've got to get the thing straight, for a
country can't live to itself alone any more
than a 'uman being. We're all members
80

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

one of another. We won't get peace at
'ome till we get peace abroad. Why, every
little industrial dispute in England is in the
long run a world problem. "

" I should like to hear you develop
that/' said Mr. Normand.

But Mr. Jonas refused. " No," he said,
" I'm going fishing. This isn't the 'appy
breakfast table of No. 10 Downing Street.
I'll tell you all about it to-night, if Jimmie
doesn't drown me."

The day passed somewhat slowly for the
ladies. The only man left behind was
Christopher Normand, who was busy in
the library, for even Mr. Wypef had
departed for the Black Loch, where he
proposed not to fish like the others but
to ascend an adjacent mountain. In the
late afternoon a slight drizzle began, and
the party assembled for tea in the hall,
where a fire of logs burned with the ferocity
which characterises fires in summer lit
rather for cheerfulness than for warmth.
81 G

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

The group presented a comfortable spec-
tacle to Mr. Normand as he returned from
a constitutional in the rain.

" We were discussing what Mr. Jonas
said at breakfast/' Mrs. Lamont informed
him. ' What do you think the workers
really want, Christopher ? >3

" A little kindness and putting their hair
in curl-papers/ ' was the reply.

" I wish you'd be serious," said the
lady, who did not recognise the quotation.
!< I can't help feeling that they only want
sympathy. "

" Just what I said," replied Mr. Nor-
mand.

' I mean," said Mrs. Lamont, her kind
eyes looking into vacancy, " I mean they
want a more human relationship than that
between the employers of a company and
a board of directors whose names they
don't know. My father used always to say
that joint stock companies would be the
ruin of our working classes. I think no
82

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

one should be allowed to be an employer
of labour who does not know personally
every one of his men."

" And has a nice wife who takes them
soup when they are ill," said Mr. Normand.

" That would be a good thing too," said
Mrs. Lamont innocently.

!£ Nonsense, Kathie," said Lady Seven-
oaks. ' You're always harking back to the
Lady Bountiful business. The working
classes only want what we all want — more
money and more leisure. I am all for high
wages and a short working week, and the
country can well afford them/if it does not
cripple itself with idiotic schemes of Tariff
Reform."

;< I think you are too material," said the
intense voice of Mrs. Aspenden. " I can-
not believe that a war which has been won
by the spirit should lead only to an increase
of loaves and fishes. What we need is
more religion — true religion."

" I agree," said Mr. Normand gravely.

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" How can we expect tHe poor to be
happy, " said the lady, " when our churches
are so ugly and our services so few and
uninspiring ? As dear Father Mabbett
used to say, if we want to restore Merrie
England, we must have priests serving all
day before our altars, and the poor regard-
ing the Church as their true home, and the
bells of every town and village in the land
ringing to welcome in the days of the
Blessed Saints."

" You think you could rally Labour on
that cry ? " asked Mr. Normand.

" I am sure of it," said the lady with
enthusiasm.

" Like Sir Vavasour Firebrace and the
bitter wrongs of the baronetage."

But his gibe missed fire, for Mrs.
Aspenden was not a student of Disraeli.
' You have no idea what good work the
Toil and Spirit movement is doing," she
continued. " Faith Brantwing told me
that she had a shop-steward to tea and he

84

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

tayed till midnight and poured out his
heart to her. People like her can lift the
workers out of their materialism/'

At the last word Mr. Normand, who
remembered the toilettes of the lady in
question, could not repress a smile.

" What do you say, Pen, dear ? " Mrs.
Lamont asked her niece.

Lady Penelope Wyper, who habitually
wore clothes more suited for a Three Arts
Ball than the Hebrides, was busy fitting
a tiny cigarette into an elaborate holder.

" Oh, I don't know," she said. " I live
only for the beautiful in life and Pm not
interested in economics. I don't think
anybody is, except the people who make
their living by teaching them. I agree
with Ursula that the change must be in the
spirit, but a few thousand extra High
Church parsons won't work the change. I
think the people are craving for colour
and form. Now, if Augustus John "

But, unnoticed by the speakers, the

85

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

party from the Lith had returned, and
Phyllis and the two fishermen were standing
between a Coromandel screen and the
passage to the drawing-room. They had
been listening to the last part of the con-
versation, and Mr. Normand was a de-
lighted witness of the slow amazement
which overspread their faces. Phyllis, who
could not see it direct, caught the reflection
of it in Christopher's eyes and broke into
merry laughter.

" Have you got a fish ? " Mr. Normand
asked.

" I 'ave," said Mr. Jonas. " And I've
put Jimmie's nose out of joint. Mine's a
pound and a 'alf 'eavier than 'is."

* You must be dreadfully wet, you poor
people," said Mrs. Lamont. " Hadn't you
better change before you have tea, or shall
I have it sent up to you ? "

They disappeared, protesting that they
would be down in ten minutes, and in the
interval conversation languished. It was
86

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

impossible to induce Lady Penelope to
expound her views further.

" But you must contribute something,
Christopher/' Mrs. Lament told him.
" We are trying to be public-spirited and
helpful, and you only jeer."

" Well, if you want to know my views,
I think the workers of this country at the
moment want liberty above all things."

" But surely they've got it."

" Not quite the right sort. Kathie,
your grandfather was one of the 1832
Whigs."

" He was, the more shame to him," said
Lady Guidwillie.

" Why shame ? " Mrs. Lamont asked.
!< He was a very good man, Margaret."

" He was," said Mr. Normand, " and
he fought in what was on the whole a very
good cause. He wanted the people to have
political liberty. Well, industrial politics
are the vital politics of the workers. They
want the same kind of liberty there that

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

your grandfather helped to win for them
in the constitutional field. "

" Rubbish, Christopher/' said Lady
Guidwillie. " They have ample liberty.
They can carry their labour to any market,
and drive a hard bargain for the price of
it. What more do you want ? "

" Price isn't everything. They want to
have a say in running the world by which
they live. I believe that if they had it
they would be better workmen and that
every industry would yield a bigger profit.
Production is what we need, more and more
production, for the war has starved the
world of everything ; and this is a way

to it.5

:£ I don't in the least know what you
mean," said Lady Guidwillie. " Do you
want to nationalise everything ? That, no
doubt, would give the workpeople some
say in the management of business, for
the whole nation would be the employer."

" I believe that in one or two cases
88

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

nationalisation would be right," Mr. Nor-
mand replied. " But I don't want to see
it carried too far, for the State should stand
a little outside the industrial world and be
able to interfere with some prestige when
things get at loggerheads. If it were the
universal employer it would have no inde-
pendent status."

" Then what do you want ? You surely
wouldn't argue that a committee of ig-
norant workmen was as capable of running
a business profitably as the highly-trained
employer. They've tried it in Russia and
made a pretty mess of it. You would only
decrease production, and that would put
up the cost of living and lower wages.
Really, Christopher, you're very illogical."

Mr. Normand laughed, and put a ques-
tion. ' You would admit, wouldn't you,
that a despot, if he were really able and
benevolent, would run a country better
than a democracy ? "

" Certainly."

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" But the world has decided against the
despot, partly because you can't count
either on his ability or his benevolence, and
partly because men like to be free and
would rather have an imperfect govern-
ment for which they are responsible than
a perfect government for which they are
not. You agree ? "

Lady Guidwillie nodded doubtfully.
Being very shrewd, she saw where she was
being led.

* Well, there's the same feeling about
the present system in industry. Men want
to have a say in what concerns them more
nearly than the government of the State,
and that is the management of the work by
which they live. They don't believe in
the divine right and infallibility of em-
ployers any more than in the divine right
of Kings and the infallibility of the Pope.
If you reply that they must trust the expert,
they are incredulous and declare that that
is pure Prussianism. You see, the average
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

man in Britain has learned very completely
the lesson of the war."

Mr. Maldwin and Sir William Jacob had
returned from a long tramp and were
listening with interest topthe discussion.

;< I don't believe in the unvarying com-
petence of employers," said the latter.
* I have cross-examined too many and
found out how little they knew of their
own business. To that extent I sympathise
with the workers, and as a Liberal I am in
favour of carrying the principle of self-
government into all things. But surely,
Normand, you are perilously near the
ground of the Syndicalist and the Guild
Socialist. I thought Tory Democrats be-
lieved in the historic continuity of things.
You are prepared to scrap a machine which
on the whole works, and put in its place an
empirical toy."

" I wish," said Mr. Normand, " I wish
that people would stop calling me a Tory
Democrat. I don't know what the silly

9*

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

phrase means. I'm a Tory or a Democrat.
I should prefer to be a Tory if the world
were what it was long ago. No, I am not
sentimental about the past, but I don't
believe greatly in the merits of what we call
progress, and I should have preferred a
simpler and poorer and happier England.
But I'm not "blind, and Toryism, except
for a few eternal principles, belongs only
to history. As it is, Fm a democrat sans
phrase , and I maintain that it's a natural
transition from honest Toryism."

Sir William apologised. " But what
about your Syndicalism ? " he asked.

' Syndicalism is simply a proof of the
widespread instinct I've been talking about.
You will always find people to fit an ab-
stract absolutist creed to any instinct.
Syndicalism goes too far, and would en-
throne one human relation at the expense
of all the rest. Guild Socialism is uncom-
monly interesting, but I believe that it is
too exotic to work well in the world as we
92

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

ow it to-day. But both are exaggera-
ons of what I believe to be sound doctrine,
have never been much of an enthusiast
bout the blessings of self-government,
but if it's good for the things that matter
less it is better for the things that matter

more."

Lady Guidwillie was not convinced.
" I have always been told that an army
would be beaten if it were commanded by a
debating society, and I don't see how that
doesn't apply to business. Expert know-
ledge is expert knowledge, and the workman
who tends a single machine will make a
mess of it if he interferes with the organisa-
;ion in which his machine is only a part,
jn't there a passage in the Apocrypha
ibout the man whose talk is of bullocks
icking to them and not trying to sit in the
>uncils of the State ? "

That text is on my side," said Christo-
pher Normand. " We are dealing with the
management of bullocks, not with things

93

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

like foreign policy. Besides, the rank and
file will obey the real expert better if he is
the man of their own approval. Give the
ordinary man a fair chance and he'll pick
good leaders and be loyal to them."

Mr. Maldwin, who had been listening
intently, took up the parable.

" I believe all your life youVe practised
what Normand's saying," he told Lady
Guidwillie. :< I've been pretty often to
stay at Waucht, and I must say the sport
was better run there than anywhere I
know. But did you ever dare to interfere
with Donald Matheson ? He used to run
the stalking like a tyrant, and run it jolly
well too. Why, IVa heard him give
Guidwillie a proper keel-hauling for some
mistake, and Guidwillie always admitted he
was right. And the same with Anderson,
the river keeper. Do you think you would
have got as good work out of these fellows
if you had been always supervising them
and telling them what to do, instead of

94

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

letting their show be their own concern
and making them feel proud of it ? "

Mr. Burford and Mr. Jonas, dry and
reclothed, had entered the hall and were
busy making up arrears. It was for them
a solemn duty, for both were in the habit
of declaring that they would rather give up
every other meal than tea. Muffins sealed
Mr. Burford 's mouth as dust dimmed the
eyes of Helen, but Mr. Jonas had still a
voice.

" I 'ad the privilege of 'earing a little
time ago some very interesting views from
the ladies as to what the workers really
want."

The ladies in question looked guiltily at
each other.

" Very interesting and enlightening they
were. And now I've 'eard some very good
sense from our friends Mr. Normand and
Mr. Maldwin 'ere. But I've got to protest
again about the 'abit of thinking of the
workers as if they were an unfeatured class,

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

like a field of corn. We'll get on better if
we think of Jack and Bill and Tom as
individuals. Our job is to restore the
ordinary man's individuality, which 'as
been submerged. Everything comes back
to that, and if you think of the question in
that way you'll find it easier going. Bill
Thomas, let's say, wants better wages and
more leisure and more interest and respon-
sibility in his job. And we all want to see
Bill a better citizen, with some notion of
'ow it takes all kinds to make a nation, and
'ow 'is own interests 'as to be squared with
other people's. Well, that means that
Bill's g6t to be better educated. Go for
Bill, and never mind his class that you call
the ' workers,' for if you think of an
abstract thing like a class you'll never get
to grips with the problem. I'm speaking
to my own address as well as to yours, for
God knows I've talked a bit of nonsense in
my day."

Lady Guidwillie approved.
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

' Workers ' is a horrid, question-beg-
ging word," she said, " like * Democracy '
id ' the People.' But all this talk seems
me most disquieting. You want a mil-
jnnium, but unless you get it universally
it will be a pandemonium. Industry and
commerce are world-wide things, and while
we are busy giving Bill Thomas a good
time, his slender output will be swamped
by the products of less fortunate countries,
and the latter end of Bill will be starva-
tion."

Mr. Normand looked up sharply.
c YouVe put your finger on the crux of
te whole business. I'm not afraid of
giving our people more self-government in
idustry, for that is a subject in which they
deeply concerned and in his own way
rery one of them is an expert. * But
democracy is apt to be terribly self-centred
in its interests. It suffers from a short-
range imagination geographically. The
purer a democracy we become, the less are

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

we fitted to handle world-problems intelli-
gently, and these world-problems are just
as vital to our well-being in the end as any
domestic question. I agree with what you
said at breakfast, Jonas. Every little in-
dustrial dispute we have is in the long run
a matter for the whole world." *

Mr. Jonas was about to reply, when he
was interrupted by the dressing-bell. At
the same moment there came a sound of
wheels from without, and Mrs. Lamont
rose in some excitement. ' That must be
Mr. Lenchard. Martha went to meet
him."

" Favete linguis" whispered Mr. Nor-
mand to Lady Sevenoaks. " When half-
gods go, the gods arrive."

Dinner was a pleasant meal which passed
swiftly, for the new guest, who had travelled
straight from London, brought news of the,
outer world which was greedily received
by people dependent upon irregular Scot-
98

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

tish papers and a belated Times. He had
just been in Paris, and gave an amusing
account of the jumble of nationalities at
work in that perplexed city. Mr. Lenchard
was one of those figures who in every
generation intrigue their contemporaries.
Most people knew him only as a name, for,
like the god Baal, he was often on a journey.
Still in early middle life, he had a singular
air of youth, but of monastic youth. His
hair, though plentiful, somehow suggested
a tonsure ; and whatever garment he as-
sumed had the appearance of a monk's
robe. His searching black eyes were pre-
ternaturally solemn, but his face now and
then broke up into a slow smile. Perhaps
it was his voice that suggested the Church ;
it seemed made to intone chants and
offices. As the founder of that admirable
quarterly, The Square Deal, he had some
claim to be a shaper of political opinion,
and he had gathered round him a group of
men who in their several spheres had done
99 H 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

distinguished work for their country. His
critics declared that he was Prussian in his
complete humourlessness and his inhuman
persistence ; his friends found in him both
humour and modesty. Under his coercion
the British Empire had altered much of its
constitutional practice and wholly revised
its constitutional theory — no small achieve-
ment for a single patriot.

The party assembled after dinner round
the hall fire, for the coming of rain had
brought a slight chill into the air.

Lady Sevenoaks was eager to make Mr.
Lenchard talk, for she wickedly anticipated
a row with Mr. Wyper.

" How is the Empire going to come out
of all this ? " she asked. " We have to be
very chary in using the name now. What
is the new phrase ? The British Common-
wealth ? "

" Yes," said Mr. Lenchard. " That is
a safer word and a more exact description.
I like ' Empire * myself, but the Germans
100

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

ive given it an ugly sound ... I think

dngs are going very well. The British
>eoples sat round the Conference Table as
a group of free nations, and it was pleasant
to find so many involuntary tributes to our
success in government. Whenever there
was any doubt about the proper mandatory
for a part of the world they generally came
first to us."

:< I should have thought," said Lady
Sevenoaks, lt that the whole creed of
Imperialism had been a little blown upon.
Mr. Wyper said the other day that the
attitude of the British Imperialist was
indistinguishable from that of the Pan-
Germans, except that he had less logic and
courage."

But, to her astonishment, Mr. Lenchard
refused to be drawn. He actually laughed.

:< I think that view has a good deal of

truth in it. The whole world was bitten

by Prussianism and none of our records

are quite clean. We all thought too much

101

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

of the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.
But, yes — on the whole we were saner, even
in our worst extravagances. Only our
fools talked the racial nonsense of the
Boche. The great Imperialists were in-
clined to be very humble in the face of
their problems, and, remember, we had
always a good deal of the sound old Whig-
gish notion of liberty in our heroics. But
we wanted purifying, and, please God,
we've got it."

Mr. Wyper, one of whose possessions
was an uncommonly thick skin, was pre-
pared to dispute this proposition. But
Mr. Lenchard declined.

" Good Lord, I'm not going to discuss
politics at this time of night. I'm fairly
dropping with sleep. We'll talk about it
to-morrow, if you like . . . Colonel La-
mont, I hear General Morier is coming
here?"

" He turns up about eleven to-night.
Malone wires that he's crossing in a yacht

102

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

rhich the new Member for the county has

sorrowed from one of his millionaire

iends." -
!< I saw a little of Morier in Paris, and

ie makes a man feel about four feet high
beside him. We've produced great sol-
diers, as great as anybody except Foch, but
we can't produce just the Morier type. He
doesn't belong to the modern world at all.
He fought the war in the spirit in which St.
Louis went to the Crusades or a medieval
knight rode out to rescue a princess. It
was funny to see him trying to puzzle his
way through the kind of problem we had
to face, wondering all the time why a war

rhich had been fought for chivalry should

jnd in bargaining. And the odd thing
that he finished by being the toughest

Bargainer of the lot. A great idealist often
ids it hard to understand other idealisms

than his own, and ends by being rather
specially terre-d-terre. I dare say Mr.

fonas would call hirr>an old reactionary. "
103

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" No, I wouldn't," said that gentleman.
" I call him an 'ero. An *ero doesn't
belong to any particular world, ancient or
modern. But we all take off our 'ats to
1m."

" He is so wonderful," sighed Mrs.
Aspenden. " I hear that he went to Mass
every morning during all his battles."

" Bless my soul," said Colonel Lamont,
" I forgot all about that. This island was
converted so thoroughly at the Reformation
that there isn't a 'priest within twenty
miles ... I wonder if Macmillan would
be any good. He was rather nice about
the Pope last Sunday. The Lith is getting
pretty low, and if only this rain doesn't
bring it up there may be a chance of
inveigling him from the sea trout."

104

VI

Mr. Lenchard discusses the faults and virtues of
British Imperialism. General Morier is in doubt
about the League of Nations. A Practical Politician
combats Idealism, and shows himself not immune
from it.

IT was Lady Sevenoaks's habit to wake
early and to pass the time in writing notes.
At that hour of the morning her mind was
active and her desire to express it over-
powering. In London she would scatter
her billets among her friends by special
messenger, but here in the Hebrides she
confined herself to inditing letters for the
post. Her first thought on waking was
of General Morier. She had a weakness
for great men, especially for the romanti-
cally great ; she remembered that during
the war she had once sat next to him at

105

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

lunch at the French Embassy, and she
desired to recall herself to his memory.
Accordingly she wrote and dispatched by
her maid an agreeable letter written in her
best French.

But while Lady Sevenoaks's French was
of a crystal clar^y, not so her handwriting.
A footman presented the missive to General
Morier while he was still heavy with sleep.
The attempt to decipher it woke him up
most effectively, and he continued his
labour while he^ shaved. He grasped the
friendly tenor of the document, but for
the life of him he could not read the sig-
nature.

When he descended to breakfast he
found the party awaiting him with a
curiosity scarcely masked by good breeding.
Indeed, he was a figure which would have
commanded attention in any company,
even if his famous record had been un-
known. Tall and spare and bearing him-
self with that erect grace which his
106

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

countrymen alone can command, he seemed
the incarnation of the spirit of chivalrous
war. A long curving scar on his brown
cheek told of that wound in the first
Argonne campaign which had laid him
aside for months, and a maimed hand spoke
of the grave days of Verdun when corps
commander and fantassin alike faced im-
minent death. His deep-set grey eyes
were at once shy and masterful, and in
every line of his worn face were gentleness
and self-control. He spoke almost perfect
English, and Colonel Lamont, who had
welcomed him in halting French, relapsed
with a sigh of relief into his native tongue.
Lady Sevenoaks greeted him with the
warmth of a privileged friend, Mrs. Aspen-
den with the reverence with which she
would have received a Prince of the
Church, and Mrs. Lavender with some-
thing approaching that curtsey which she
would have refused to any crowned head
on the globe ; the young men stood to
107

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

attention as if on parade ; and Mr. Jonas,
in his hero-worship, forbore to make any
remark till he had finished his porridge.

After the meal the General took his
hostess aside. !< Have you perhaps a
Madame Snooks staying in the house ? "
he asked. '* I desire to be presented to
her."

Mrs. Lamont hastily repeated the names
of the women. The General reflected and
found enlightenment. " I beg your par-
don/' he said, laughing, " I am getting old
and stupid. Snooks ! But, of cou-rse, no.
It is my blunder." And he hastened to
compliment Lady Sevenoaks on her morn-
ing freshness and on the distinguished
public services of her husband.

It was a day of steady rain. " Confound
it," said Colonel Lamont. " This will fill
up the Lith, and there will be no hope of
getting Macmillan away from it." In the
house there was a large and pleasant room,
half library, half smoking-room, which was
108

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

the usual rendezvous on wet days. Many
fine heads of deer adorned the walls, and
the bookshelves contained the assortment
of literature common in Scottish country
houses — old threervolume editions of Sir
Walter Scott's novels, the proceedings of
antiquarian and agricultural societies, and
odd works of eighteenth-century divinity.
Colonel Lamont had elsewhere in the
house a well-appointed library, and this
room was the backwater into which drifted
the less regarded volumes.

Here during the morning most of the
men found themselves assembled, with
eyes turning from the wet window-panes
to the glowing peat fire. Mr. Lenchard
and General Morier stood talking on the
hearth-rug ; Mr. Maldwin was deep in a
volume ofjorrocks, with his legs swung over
the arm of his chair ; Sir William Jacob
and Mr. Wyper were writing letters ; and
Christopher Normand was dozing over a
three-days-old Times.
109

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Mr. Wyper finished his correspondence
and joined the two by the fire.

" I am afraid Lady Sevenoaks rather
traduced me last night, " he told Mr.
Lenchard. " Morally, of course, I never
classed Imperialists with Pan-Germans.
If you had clearly envisaged your aims—
which you never did — you might be liable
to the charge. But what difference, except
in degree, was there between your ' self-
sufficing Empire ' and the Germany which
Biilow and Ballin dreamed of ? You too
wanted to set yourselves outside and above
the comradeship of nations. "

Mr. Lenchard regarded with some dis-
favour the restless being before him.

" Nobody ever preached a self-sufficing
Empire. It was a fiction of our opponents.
What we advocated was the development
of a closer union between the parts of that
Empire. Only a fool, if he has to live in
the world, seeks to cut himself off from the
world."

no

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Will you tell me what is this Imperial-
m ? " General Morier asked. " For many
I have had little leisure to study, and
know it only as a name."
Mr. Lenchard turned with a smile to the
General.

" You ask me a good deal," he said.
" But I will try to tell you what I mean by
it. Like every big thing, people interpreted
it in different ways."

He lit his pipe, pulled up an armchair,
and stretched his long legs to the fire.

" First, I believed in the big social unit.
In our complicated world you cannot limit
ny question territorially, and the big
uestions need a big space for settlement,
erefore, like Germany, I believed in
eat nations administering great tracts of
nd. No. It wasn't grandeur, General,
t was common sense. I wanted to create
new patriotism for the big unit, which
ould not supersede the smaller patriot-
ms but would safeguard them. I believe
in

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

that to be a right deduction from history.
Take the case of Scotland. If Scotland had
remained a little separate kingdom, like
Holland, she would have lost her Scottish-
ness. The struggle for life would have
rubbed away her idioms of language and
literature, thought and manners and tra-
dition. But, being part of the British
Empire, she can cherish all her idiosyn-
crasies, and at the same time feel a genuine
devotion to the bigger unit which she has
done so much to create."

The Frenchman nodded. " That is
truth/* he said.

" Well, then, I wanted the Empire for
three reasons . One was its economic value .
These islands were over-industrialised, and
to give our people a wholesome life we
needed more space. A second was its
moral value. The duties of Empire
brought fresh air into our politics, and
gave our young men a richer field of ser-
vice. Thirdly, I wanted it as a safeguard

112

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

peace. The hope of peace, to-day as in
e Middle Ages, lies in a community of
w, interests, and culture over the biggest
ssible area. We could not restore right
y the unity of Christendom, but the
ritish Empire was the first instalment/'
" That is clear/1 said General Morier,
and Mr. Wyper, whose mouth was opened
to questions, forbore, for the Frenchman
went on : " There is nothing in what you
say that France would not subscribe to. I
see in it none of that universalism which
I dread."

* What effect has the war had on your
views, Philip ? >! Christopher Normand
asked.

" It has not changed them. In a sense
it has justified them. But, thank God, it
has also superseded them."

General Morier looked anxious.
" Are you then a convert to univer-
salism ? >!

" I hope not," said Mr. Lenchard, " for
113 i

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

I never heard a more beastly word. But
am a convert to the closer interconnectioi
of all peoples. We are in for democra<
everywhere, and we have got to safeguan
the world against its defects. Its bigge*
danger is that the people become absorb*
in their domestic problems, and, while th<
State extends its area of control ov<
national life, there is a perpetual risk of
country intensifying its self-consciousn<
to the point of truqulent independence
We have lost the old cosmopolitan sociel
which kept the upper classes of Europe ii
touch with each other, and we are in dangc
of leaving foreign relations to a small bod]
of disregarded experts. That is simpb
foolishness, for however nice you make yoi
house and garden it won't be a desirable
dwelling unless you see that the amenitii
of the neighbourhood are preserved
Well, the war has shown us, I think, tJ
we can't live apart from the rest of thi
world. Most people now see that foreij
114

Till: ISLAND OF SHEEP

a Hairs arc as much a part of their politics
an increase in the income (ax. Hut
less we ^ci the right kind of machinery
shall always tend to sink back to the old
sorption in home questions. We have
orientate the parish pump with a wider
rid. I used to think that the Empire was
ough for the purpose, but now 1 see that
we want nothing short of humanity at
large/'

Mr. Wyper expressed his approval.
* Your definition of Imperialism/' he said,
" was pure Prussianism. It was exaetly
what the parson here was defending last
Sunday, when he warned us not to despise
Germany's ideals. I could parallel every
one of your points out of Delbriick. Hut
I welcome a belated convert to the League
Nations. There, at any rate, we are in
eemcnt."

I don't think we should agree long/'
id Mr. Lenchard. 4| You want to blur all
tionality into a soft pulpy thing. I

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

want to make it harder and craggier than
ever. Before we can have a League of
Nations we must have the nations, and
that's what you fellows forget/'

Mr. Wyper would fain have retorted,
but at that moment Mr. Jonas and Mr.
Burford entered the room. They had been
for a walk in the rain, and the wet glistened
on their faces. Mr. Lenchard, at the
request of the General, continued :

11 I believe in a League of Nations on the
same grounds as I believed in Imperialism.
The least important is that it is the only
guarantee of peace. I will give you a
reason which should appeal to Jonas. We
in Britain have to face a complete recon-
struction of industrial life. Thank Heaven
we mean business this time and won't be
allowed to trifle with it. But, if industry
is a world-wide thing, how are we going to
give our people a better life if elsewhere in
the globe we have to compete with the
cheap products of the dark ages ? Believe
116

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

me, a country which develops its industrial
life on purely nationalist lines will end in
disaster. It will either fail and starve, or
will go to war like Germany. I am not
Socialist, but I have always admitted the
>od sense of the Internationale. The
Socialists saw the world-wide ramifications
of the things that interested them, and they
made an honest attempt to provide ade-
quate machinery ... I won't bother you
with other reasons, except to say this. The
moral and imaginative value which some
of us found in Imperialism is to be found
in a far fuller measure in the conception
of a working union of all civilised
peoples."

General Morier sadly shook his head.
" I do not deny the splendour of the con-
ception, but I fear that it is too splendid
for an imperfect world. It will weaken
the homely intimacies of race and country,
which have about them the glamour of
ages. How can you get that long- descended
117

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

reverence with which to invest your brand
new League ? "

"I think," said Mr. Lenchard, " th
the difficulties are enormous, but th
most of them will vanish if they are fac
by a resolute good will. As for the sane
tion, we must make it. We must creat
an international mood, and make men
loyal to mankind as they are to their ow
lands. It can be done and it will be done
The larger patriotism does not destroy th
smaller, for men are loyal to the Britis
Empire as well as to England or Canada
and a Frenchman loves France as much
his Normandy village. But it needs,"
concluded, fixing his eye on Mr. Wype
" the devil of a lot of wisdom, and th
thing will be wrecked at the start if it
left to feeble intellectuals who profess f<
the world a devotion which they refuse t
their own country."

" That's a bit 'ard," said Mr. Jona
grinning. ;< I am 'eart and soul for th<
118

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

League, but I'm puzzled to know how it's
>ing to work. I don't like the folk that
ill themselves jurists."

No more do I," said Christopher
formand from the depths of his armchair.
They usually come from Guatemala or
eru» They start by talking about Solon
and Lycurgus and they end by being
squared. "

" What I mean to say," Mr. Jonas con-
tinued, " is that I'm afraid of the League
becoming too much of a State and giving
us a double dose of politics. Lord knows
we have enough to satisfy us at present ! "
" I don't agree^" said Mr. Lenchard.
" We want more of the State and not less,
id you, as a good Socialist, Jonas, should
rree with me. You made an excellent
sech the other day in which you told
>ur people that their first loyalty was owed
the State and not to their Union or their
slass. We want to uphold the State as
against all sectional organisations. I don't
119

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

want to see men brigaded by classes and
interests. I want to see every man a citizen
first and a Trade Unionist or an employer
second. And I want a World State to
supersede any Internationale, for it will
deal with the whole complex of political
life and not with a fraction. "

Mr. Lenchard had squared his shoulders
and was embarking on a fuller exposition,
when the sound of the luncheon-gong fell
on the ears of the party. Luncheon on a
wet day in a Highland lodge is apt to be a
dreary meal, but on this occasion the
presence of General Morier lent it an agree-
able excitement. There also appeared Mr.
Merry weather Malone, who had arrived
the night before and had stayed in bed
during the morning to cure a cold. He
was a large man of some forty odd years,
who combined a plump body with a lean
countenance. His greeting of his fellow
guests was marked by the ceremonious
dignity common among American gentle-
120

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

I men ; his greeting of Mrs. Lavender was
touched with a romantic regret for lost
opportunities. Speaking through a heavy
catarrh, he announced that he believed
that he had staved off the pneumonia which
had seemed a sure thing when he awoke,
and was now ready for a little nourish-
ment.

General Morier continued the conversa-
tion of the smoking-room.

" You English are too idealist," he said.
' You strive after the impossible and have
a passion for uniting incompatibles. We
of France take our stand on the solid ground
of European tradition. We revere the
wisdom of our forefathers. We believe in
the perfectibility of mankind — but not yet
awhile. We do not think that even this
great war has changed human nature, and
we would not have it changed. We love
the fallible thing which is France more
deeply than any cloudy cosmopolitan
fatherland. You cannot break with the

121

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

past, my friends, and you dare not forget
history/'

Mr. Jonas signified his assent. !< I am
always preaching more 'ist'ry," he said.

" I wonder if you realise what a difficult
patch Britain has to hoe," said Mr. Nor-
mand. :t France is European, America is
American. We're European on one side
and American on another, and a great many
things besides. We're a far more compli-
cated piece to fit into the international
jig-saw puzzle."

" Our difficulties are our strength," Mr.
Lenchard cried. " Because we're no one
thing in particular we're everything. We're
the eternal hyphen in a new era."

"Perhaps," said the General, with a
smile at Mr. Lenchard's enthusiasm.
" Nevertheless you seek two incompatibles,
a world politically united, and a spiritual
unity which will alone make the other
possible. That was your argument this
morning. Well, 1 say they are incom-

122

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

patibles, and I look to history for the proof.
In the Roman Empire you had political
union, but you had a thousand clashing
faiths. Then came Christianity. In the
Middle Ages you had spiritual unity, but
a world all split into warring races. You
may have one or the other, but not both,
and it is both you seek. You are too
idealist."

" Perhaps we are," said Mr. Lenchard.
" Nevertheless we must attempt the im-
possible, for there is no other way. And
after all, General, mankind has advanced
chiefly by attempting and achieving the
incredible. In four years Britain created
out of nothing one of the most successful
armies in the world. You yourself at
Verdun defied every law of probability."

General Morier bowed. :< I am a lover
of daring, my friend. Perhaps it is not on
that ground I oppose you. The trouble
is that I do not like your new world. I
think of France, now these many centuries
123

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

old and yet eternally young. I rejoice to
see her head held high among the nations.
I would have her strong through wise
alliances, and modest in her strength, for
being old she is well-bred, and does not
need to boast like a. parvenu. We and you
together, and the Americans, are security
enough for peace, for though we are
unlike, yet our qualities supplement each
other and the sum is political wisdom. I
do not like to think of my country shorn of
her strength for defence, which is the
pride of every man and every people, and
surrendering her honour to an international
debating society."

" Why not ? " asked Mr. Wyper. " We
have abolished duelling and leave our
disputes for the law to settle."

" The parallel is not exact. Duelling,
it is true, is infrequent, and so I hope will
be war. But every true man is still able
and willing, if need be, to defend his
honour, his wife, his family, with his own
124

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

hand. You would take from my nation
the power to do likewise. "

Mr. Wyper admitted that he would.

" Then I do not like it. You would
destroy the old way, but you will not change
humanity, and the day will come when your
League will break and you will have to
face the ancient mischief with untrained
arms and a broken tradition. We French
love real things and do not walk with our
heads in the air. We believe that God has
a holy city prepared for us, but not this
side the grave. So in the meantime we
cling to our little terrestrial towns." And
he quoted :

" Heureux ceux qui sont morts pour les cit6s

charnelles,
Car elles sont le corps de la cit6 de Dieu."

The beauty of his voice and the gentle-
ness of his manner had a curious effect on
the others. It made Mrs. Lavender want to
cry, and Mrs. Aspenden's face assumed that
air of devotion which it wore during the

125

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

ministrations of Father Mabbett. Mr.
Burford was also greatly impressed, and,
removing his spectacles, blinked earnestly
at the speaker.

It was at this moment that a visitor
appeared on the scene. Mr. Archibald
Strathbungo, the new Member for the
county, was a young man already celebrated
in the half- world of politics. He had
been private secretary to an eminent states-
man, and had made for himself a high
reputation as an adroit tactician. No man
could more subtly influence the Press or
had a keener nose for electoral possibilities,
and to him was generally attributed the
unique success of the Coalition at the polls.
He was slight and boyish of figure, with
close-cropped black hair, large restless
eyes, and the jaw of an Old Bailey lawyer.
Whence he sprung no one knew, but his
speech had the racy idiom of the environs
of Glasgow. To an immense circle of
acquaintances he was known as " Bunggie."
126

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

He introduced himself to his host, who

I presented him to the company. With some,
such 3.3 Mrs.- Lavender and Mr. Jonas, he
was already acquainted. Lady Sevenoaks
regarded him with a stare of abhorrence,
seeing in him a shameless enemy. A place
was laid for him, and he fell with zest to
luncheon.

" How's the cold, Mr. Malone ? " he
asked. ' You wouldn't take my advice
and try a rummer of hot whisky. Man,
teetotaler or no, it's a mistake to despise
the best medicine God ever made."

Mr. Malone inquired as to the health of
the owner of the yacht in which he had
travelled the previous day.

He's fine. He's got a new maggot in
ds head about making Persian rugs on
Highland looms with native dyes. I like
old Linkumdoddie," he added, turning
>rightly to Colonel Lament. " If it weren't
for his yawt I'd never get about these
islands. I've a kind of pull with him, for
12.7

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

I spoke a word in the right quarter about
his peerage and I think he knows it."

r< Linkumdoddie," murmured Lady
Penelope Wyper, " I'm sure there's no
such name in the peerage."

" You'll find it in the Profiteerage," Mr.
Normand whispered.

Mr. Strathbungo had broken utterly the
spell cast by General Morier. An air of
rollicking candour sat on him, and one
might have suspected him of innocence but
for his alert eyes. It was not long before
Mr. Wyper had roused him to argument
by a complaint of certain electioneering
methods.

' Ugh, away," said the gentleman.
" There's some of you folk too high-
minded for this world as long as you're on
the losing side. When you see a chance of
winning there's nothing you won't do.
Just look at the Liberals. They were
always declaring that the party system was
the root of the Constitution, until they saw
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

that the Tories were likely to beat them at
the game, and then they had no words bad
enough for party spirit. Fm a plain man,
and I believe in parties, same as I believe
in nations. You've got to fight and win,
and then you do the best you can for the
country."

" I presume you do not believe in any
Hague Convention about the methods of
party warfare, Mr. Strathbungo," said
Lady Sevenoaks acidly.

" I don't. There's just one convention
to keep in mind, and that's human nature.
The man that understands human nature

wins."

" And you would defend an appeal to the
people on the programme of 'anging* the
Kaiser and making Germany pay for
everything, when you know both are im-
possible ? " asked Mr. Jonas.

" I don't know they're impossible, and I
defend them right enough. They were my
own idea. We would have lost the election

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

if we had gone on talking about brotherhood
and the * spirit of the trenches ' and all that
hot air. What you object to were the only
things the voters cared a rush about. You
Labour chaps did the same thing, only
you weren't clever enough. You started
yowling about Conscription, when you
knew there wasn't a man on our side who
didn't loathe the very name of it."

Mrs. Lament's mild spirit was stirred.
:< It all sounds very wicked," she said.

" Oh, I don't think so," said Mr.
Strathbungo genially. :< It's the rules of
the game. The people want to fight and
it's your business to show them sport.
You've got to fight on the issues they
prefer."

' Such is Democracy," said General
Morier softly.

Mr. Normand leaned over to him.
" We English are too idealist," he whis-
pered, and the Frenchman smiled.

Mr. Strathbungo caught an echo of the
130

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

hrase. ' That's an awful word/' he
id. :< I'm not very particular, but I
ouldn't like to be an idealist. It's a poor,
ilk-blooded, blue-spectacled sort of busi-

ess."

Colonel Lamont was ill at ease. He had
ever met the new Member before, and
disapproved of him strongly ; but his
sense of hospitality held him in an em-
barrassed silence. Not so Lady 'Guid-
willie. With her grimmest smile she
addressed Mr. Strathbungo.

" You had a meeting at Waucht in
December/' she said. " I wasn't present,
but if I had been I would have moved a
vote of no confidence. You talked some
precious nonsense about the land."

Coffee having been served, Mr. Strath-
ungo was smoking — a cigar set in an
ber mouthpiece which stuck in a
rner of his wide, loose mouth.

Let's hear what the nonsense was," he
aid pleasantly.

I3T K 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" You told them that the land in th<
Highlands could be made to support five
times the present population, if they got
rid of the landlords. I'll give you leave to
try at Waucht. I pay twenty-five shillings
in the pound for rates, and there aren't
twenty acres on the estate you could get a
plough through."

Mr. Strathbungo suddenly became a
different person. He laid down his cigar
and his whimsical face grew solemn. Also
the veneer of English accent disappeared
and he spoke in the unabashed drawl of
his native city.

" I wasn't referring to Waucht/' he
said. " There's not much could live at
Waucht, except deer. And I wasn't speak-
ing of landlords like your folk. You're the
old kind, who think first of their people and
would starve rather than let them starve.
But I stick to every word I said about the
Highlands at large. They're stuffed with
Englishmen and Americans and Jews that
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

come only for their amusement and don't
care a docken about the place. Oh, they
spend money. I know it. But they spend
it to make people slaves, and I would rather
have the Highlander poor and free. I'm
one myself, and my blood boils when I see
big trencher-fed gillies crawling before a
London shopkeeper."

" Democracy ! democracy ! " said Mr.
Normand.

" Democracy be bldwed ! The High-
lands were never democratic — never in
that way. But they used to be free. Tell
me, Colonel, did ever men fight better than
the Highland battalions ? They've earned
the right to the use of their native land.
Are you willing to have that land only a
playground and a resort for honeymoon
couples, and its chief export picture post-
cards ? You ask Macmillan, the minister.
He'll tell you of the old days when there
were droves of black cattle on ground that
now has nothing but deer. You can't

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

restore those days, but you can bring in
modern inventions. You can make the
finest fishing industry in Britain if you take
trouble about canning factories and trans-
port. You can start the old cottage in-
dustries again. You can introduce sheep
where they should be instead of deer, and
cattle where they should be instead of
sheep, and the plough where it should be
instead of pasture. But the first thing
you've got to do is to emancipate the land
from the idle rich."

Lady Guidwillie regarded the speaker
almost with affection. " There's some
sense in your head, Mr. Strathbungo. I
rather wish I had been at your meeting.
I might have seconded the vote of con-
fidence. "

" Of course you would," he cried.

* The real gentry like you should be on my

side. Do you think I came to this part of

the world for fun ? I have dreamed of the

job ever since I could stand on two legs,

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

and now the war has given me a chance.
I am not going to rest as long as there's an
acre of Highland ground lying idle that
can be used to support human life. What's
left over can go to sport. I like a day with
the gun myself.0

Mr. Jonas, who had been vastly enter-
tained, shook his head.

" You can't do it, Bunggie. Your old
Coalition depends on the idle rich."

The young man forgot his manners.
" Then I'll see the Coalition in Tophet,"
he said, with a ferocity that produced a
sudden silence.

General Morier leaned towards Mr.
Normand. " I was right," he said. " You
English — all of you — are too idealist."

VII

The visit to the Sea Skerries and Lord Linkum-
doddie's yacht. Mr. Merryweather Malone enlarges
on the gulf between British and American minds and
the embarrassments of his own land. He differs
from General Morier and comforts him with texts.

DURING the night a wind rose which
blew away the rain, and on Thursday
morning the island woke to blue skies and
a world washed clean. The little hill
streams were still in spate, but the strong
sun dried the ground, so that after break-
fast it was possible for Mr. Strathbungo to
smoke his first cigar seated on a bank of
heather above the lawn, where he was
volubly appreciating the prospect. He,
General Morier, and Mr. Malone had to
leave that afternoon, and it was arranged
that the morning should be spent on the

136

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

little isles known as the Sea Skerries, where
they could be picked up for luncheon by
Lord Linkumdoddie's yacht, in which the
three departing guests were to continue
their journey.

There must be an attraction between
opposites, for General Morier showed a
curious liking for Mr. Strathbungo's
society. He had played billiards with him
the evening before and been soundly
beaten, and he now took his seat beside
him on the heather.

' You have told me many things," he
said, " but you have not spoken about the
League of Nations. We were discussing
it yesterday when you arrived. You are
a British politician — what you call a prac-
ical man. What do you say to it ? "

Mr. Strathbungo winked solemnly at
its questioner.

* It's all right/1 he said. " Personally
I'm not much heeding about it. It's not
the kind of business that interests me. But

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

it's a grand thing to keep some folks quiet.
You see, General, most folk are not men of
the world like you and me. They like hot
air and fine sentiment, and the great thing
is to give them a subject where they can
safely indulge their taste. They can blow
off all the steam they want about the League
of Nations without doing much harm."

* But for the scheme itself you do not
care — how is it you say ? — a docken ? >!

" Well, I wouldn't just say that. I'm
quite ready to be enthusiastic about the
parliament of man and the federation of the
world, and all the rest of it. But I don't
regard it as very practical politics."

" And yet it is in the forefront of the
Peace deliberations."

" It had to be. We had to satisfy
America and it turns put we only satisfied
Wilson .... Well, they can fight it out
as they like for me. If the thing goes
phut, I'm not caring. If it succeeds, good
and well. Anyhow, it's a fine safety-valve

138

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

and makes a lot of wind-bags happy. Fm
all for keeping a subject like that as a
standing diversion for what you call
idealists/'

As they walked down to the shore,
General Morier found himself in company
with Christopher Normand and Mr.
Burford.

* I like the young Strathbungo," he
said. ' He is a good and merry fellow.
But I think he is a relic of the old life before
the war, for he has not been touched by it.
I wonder how he contrived it. Have you
many like him ? "

"Heaps/* said Mr. Normand. " All
the professional politicians. They are by
no means dead, and nothing changes them.
If there was a universal convulsion and we
were all suddenly back in the Palaeolithic
age they would be organising caucuses
next morning among the cave-men."

Mr. Burford took a more hopeful view.
u You won't find many. Only a few middle-

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

aged folk who have no children. I go
about among the towns and villages of
England and I hardly come across a man
who hasn't had his world knocked end-
ways by the war. They can't remember
the life they lived five years ago. For good
or for bad, mankind's got a jog out of its
rut."

" I don't know. What about America ? "
" Ah, America," said General Morier.
" A great and most curious country."
His air was such as might have been worn
by a medieval geographer puzzling over a
modern atlas.

The short journey to the Skerries was
performed in heavy salmon-cobles rowed
by sturdy fishermen. It was indeed a
marvellous day, the sunlight dancing on
the ripples, the big hills of the mainland
showing blue and distant, oyster-catchers
and terns piping on the shingle, and every
corner of shore a nook of greenery. When
the Skerries were reached, some of the
140

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

party set off to visit the ruins of a monas-
ery famous in Church history. General

orier, who had been ingeminating
erica as Lord Falkland ingeminated

eace, stayed behind with Mr. Malone, and
he two, along with Mrs. Lavender, Mr.
Burford, and Penrose Mac Andrew, seated
themselves on the top of a little cliff which
was crowned with a thatch of young
heather.

" I'm sorry to leave," said Mr. Malone.
"I'm always mighty sorry to leave any
part of this little country. I'm a lover of
England, Martha, though I don't forsake
my native land like you. I wish America
were planted right here, for then there
would be a better chance of our getting to
like each other."

Mr. Burford inquired concerning Ameri-
can opinion regarding Britain.

" It's better," said Mr. Malone. " You
can't fight in the same trenches against the
same Hun without feeling a kind of sym-
141

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

pathy. But there's plenty of room for
improvement. The trouble is we have
too much in common. We can't help
feeling we are near relations, and that riles
us. If there wasn't so much Englishness
in the United States, we'd think England a
fine museum-piece and revere her."

c< No," he said, in reply to a question by
Mr. Burford. " It isn't Irish and German
propaganda or lying history books or dam-
fool Englishmen on their travels. The
main cause is right deep down in our
nature. We speak pretty well the same
language, but we haven't the same way of
looking at things. We haven't the same
sense of humour, and that's a difference
that would divorce husband and wife.
You pitch the case too low,, and we think it
funny to put it sky-high. One day last
summer I was in a bit of the line which the
British were holding next door to the
Americans. There was a horrid great
shelling all morning. Our boys said they
142

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

reckoned that Hell and Vesuvius had been
having a match at ninepins. An English
sergeant I spoke to admitted when he was
pressed — when he was pressed, remember —
that the Kaiser might have been a bit
'asty that morning. When we think poorly
of a man, we say he's so low down he'd
want an aeroplane to get up to hell. You'd
mention he was an outsider and trouble no
more about him . . . Then there's what
you call your Oxford manner. We've got
that, too, but only in Boston, but with you
it's in the bone. You're so darned genteel
and superior. And the fellows among you
that are always explaining England to
America by abusing the Oxford manner
have got it worst of all. An American
don't like to say anything against his
country, even when he knows she's in the
wrong. When he hears an Englishman
criticising England he puts it down as
another example of his blamed super-
ciliousness . . . You see, we're a_ young

143

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

nation and very sentimental, and don'
mind showing it. You're an old peopl<
and a critical, and you'd rather die ths
admit your feelings. Why, our business
that we think so much of, is a form oi
sentiment. It's the big ideas that get us
and we roll them round our tongue and
plan to astonish the world. Sometimes
we get there and sometimes we don't.
You pride yourself on being unbusiness-
like, but you often get there sooner."

" Seems to me you've acquired the
Oxford manner yourself, Merryweather,"
said Mrs. Lavender.

Mr. Malone laughed. " We've all got
a bit of it, ever since Abel. It was that
that made Cain mad. But I'm not going
to blame my country's foibles, though I
see them right enough. I prefer them to
other people's sense. This old world's
getting too logical, and you can't be happy
that way. Very soon America will be the
only place left for a white man, for she

144

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

don't give a cent for logic . . . Just look
it our labour troubles. We quarrel a bit,
>ut we are never near the eternal rock-
>ottom you've struck in Europe."
Mr. Burford was much interested.
c That's quite true, but you can't keep
it always that way. Up to now you've led
the sheltered life, very little concerned with
your neighbours and plenty to go on with
at home. You've been able to provide so
niuch jam or the near prospect of jam that
you've kept the children quiet. But the
children are growing up, remember. What
are you going to do when your fluid classes
solidify and you bump up against the old
questions that perplex the rest of the
world ? You'll be pretty raw to the job,
Mr. Malone. I've seen a lot of America,
id in ordinary political education you're
ie most backward land on the globe.
rour Labour leaders still talk the language
the 'seventies and 'eighties. But that's
tanging every day, and you've got to get

145 L

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

busy about your education. You aren't a
peculiar people any more, and you can't
shut yourself off from the rest of the
world."

" We are going to have a darned good
try," said Mr. Malone. " I don't say
there's not truth in your view — I think
there's a lot of truth. I've said the same
thing myself, and that's why hitherto I
have been such a conspicuous failure in
public life. But it's going to be a large-
size job to shift America from her dug-out.
She is the only decent conservative left,
and she hates real change like hell. She
was very willing to fight, but now she wants
to get back to the farm straight away and
hammer her sword into a ploughshare."

" But you're a business people," said
Mr. Burford, " and you must want to see
the job through."

" We never finish anything," said Mr.
Malone, " not in politics. Look at Mexico.
Look at the progress of our Reform move-
146

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

ment. Our little old Constitution was
xpressly framed to prevent us doing any-

ing drastic. We're all for compromise
nd half way houses. We're mighty Eng-
ish, far more English than you ... I tell
ou, Mr. Wilson has got a tougher pro-
osition to put through than anything
George Washington handled . . . There's
just a chance of his falling down over it
and America establishing a Republic."

:< If you're right, Merry weather," said
Mrs. Lavender, " I'm going to hustle
William back to the States right now and
take a hand in the fight. What side are
you on anyway ? "

" I'm a good Republican," said Mr.
Malone, " but I'm for Wilson. I'm not
going to put it too high, Martha, for we'd

e you back with us, but I think he's

ing to win out if he handles the thing in
he right way. There's just one winning
icket for him."

Mr. Malone bit the end off his cigar and

147 L 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

borrowed a match from Penrose Mac-
Andrew.

" You've maybe observed, Penrose/5 he
said, " that we Americans are a profoundly
religious people. "

General Morier looked startled, and Mrs.
Lavender denied the charge. c Utterly
pagan," she said.

" No," said Mr. Malone, " you're wrong,
Martha. You're getting short in the
memory. We have fits of paganism, but
we're nqver happy in them. We know
we're backsliders and pretty soon we repent
. . . We're very religious, but it's our own
special kind. We are not interested in
your European brand of church. Our
type is the field preaching, and we always
get back to it. Getting converted is our
national pastime. What put us into the
war ? I reckon the village prayer meeting,
first and foremost, and please God it's
going to put us into peace. All our
religions that count are revivalisms, whether
148

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

it's Billy Sunday or Mamie B. Eddy that
professes to have the goods. Revivalism is
the key to the heart of America, and if Mr.
Wilson's a good enough revivalist he'll
win out. He's got to make us feel that
if we don't do what he tells us we're way
down on the level of the Impenitent Thief."

Mr. Malone's exposition was interrupted
by the arrival of the other sightseers.
Lord Linkumdoddie's yacht was moored a
little way out in the channel, and as the
hour of luncheon had arrived the party
embarked again in the boats and were
rowed towards it. It was well that no one
of Mr. Malone's hearers thought fit to
repeat his views, for Mrs. Aspenden, whose
soul had been elevated by the sight of
Culdee relics, was in no mood for what
she would have regarded as profanity.

Lord Linkumdoddie was a man of
sixty, on whose slim shoulders was set
an enormous and beautifully:shaped head.
He had a trick of smiling secretly to himself
149

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

as if amused by the world, and he spoke
little. His vast fortune had no heir, and
he was in the habit of dispensing benefac-
tions so colossal that the popular mind was
dulled by their sheer magnitude. He was
reputed a hard man of business and in-
tolerant of fools. His position left him
ample leisure, for he held the view that
the better organised a business the less it
required the attention of its head. Travel,
the collection of old English furniture, and
the care of a weak digestion were his chief
absorptions. He was also an active and
devout member of the Baptist communion.

The 5oo-ton yacht showed few marks of
its war service in the brilliance of its
brass-work and the scrupulous whiteness
of its decks. The large party packed the
dining cabin, but through the open port-
holes came the cool sea airs.

Mrs. Lavender gave Christopher Nor-
mand a summary of Mf. Malone's recent
conversation, to which Lord Linkum-

150

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

doddie listened with interest. America,
the owner of the yacht declared, held —
not for the first time — the key of the
situation.

" I like her for her slowness," he said.
" No great country changes in a hurry.
After all her attitude is the same as ours
was a generation ago. We strove to keep
out of Continental entanglements, and
proclaimed that all our interests lay beyond
Europe. A Conservative dislikes changes,
but when he alters he does it wholesale.
Look at the Tory party to-day. Look at
Britain in 1914 . . . I am not a Con-
servative, so I have always preferred
change. "

" Even industrial revolution ? " asked
Mr. Normand.

" Industrial revolution most of all. I
have never worked to make money, and I
would far rather build up a sound industry
than big profits. Up to now our whole
industrial fabric has been preposterous.

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

and I am glad it's falling to bits. If they
take all my money, I can make more.
Thank God, I'm not dependent on my
bank balance. "

Lady Guidwillie, who had the mis-
fortune to depend upon inherited capital,
protested.

" You're the most dangerous man in the
country," she told Lord Linkumdoddie.
* You're an adventurer, and don't mind
losing your stakes, for you know you can
win them back. But what of us poor
people who are not so fortunate ? "

Her host smiled reassuringly. " I don't
think you need worry, Lady Guidwillie.
There will be no downfall of capital in the
ordinary sense. But there will be a rooting
up of vested interests in men's lives, and I
for one am glad of it."

Mr. Jonas had his mouth open to speak,
when the attention of everyone was caught
by the loud voice of Mr. Malone.

" America is too antiquarian," he was

152

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

saying. " That's the trouble. She senti-
mentalises too much about the past, for
you see she hasn't had very much of it and
she cherishes what she's got. I say that
the world's bound to cut loose from its
antiques, especially as most of them are
shams and come from Wardour Street.
We are all on a pilgrimage, and it won't do
to load ourselves up with every relic picked
up by the road and be always stopping to
moon over them. !*& keep the old maps
as aj^istorical record and discard the relics,
for the one's got some meaning for the
present day and the other's just junk.
Above all, it's no good cherishing old
grievances."

" Like Ireland," suggested Christopher
Normand.

" Like Ireland," said Mr. Malone.
" There's an awful warning for you. I'm
)f Irish stock myself, and for our sins we've
;ot a good many like me in the States,
'hat poor little island is living in a bogus

153

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

past and trying to screw some pride out of
it, while she's forgetting to do anything to
be proud of right now. The ordinary
Irishman is ashamed of himself and h<
hasn't the honesty to admit it. No man's
any good unless he has something t<
swagger about, and Ireland hasn't anything
except a moth-eaten ragbag of wrongs,
That's her confounded antiquarian habit
of mind. And the worst of it is that this
sentimental grieving isn't sincere. Apart
from a few poets, it's only the stock-in-
trade of vulgar careerists. It's enough to
make a man sick to hear an Irish ward-
politician talking about Dark Rosaleen
. .- . If America is too much of a stand-
patter, there's a horrid risk of her getting
like Ireland. She hasn't grievances, but
she's got dislikes and false sentiments, and
that's just about as bad."

General Morier did not agree.

" I think you are too hard," he said.
" These things that you despise are very

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

near the heart of every honest man. The
prejudices of a nation are as vital as its
principles, and I do not desire to see a
completely rational bourgeois world. Would
you apply your maxim to Europe also ? "

" To be sure I would/* said Mr. Malone.
" Britain's forgot a lot, but she's a deal
more forgetting to do. Italy has a fine
assortment of useless lumber to jettison."

" And France ? "

" Yes, France most of all. Look here,
General. I know your country. I want
to cry when I think of some of the things
you've done. But you've got to forget
about your sufferings. You're too big to
be a Martyr State. The other day you
were mad with Mr. Wilson because he
didn't Tun off straight away and look at
your battlefields and devastated areas.
That was maybe a blunder of tact on the
President's part, but it's a worse blunder
if you make too much of your wounds. It
won't do for France to be a sort of Byron

155

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

among peoples, making a pageant of her
bleeding heart. "

" These things are the war," was the
answer. " Would you have us forget
that ? "

" Yes," said Mr. Malone stoutly. " It
would be better to forget it than to be
always remembering it. The nations have
got a terrific job before them, and they
won't ever make good if they're always
thinking about the war. The war hasn't
solved any problem except the one — which
side was the stronger ; and that doesn't
help us much except by clearing the ground.
Therefore, I say we can't be always dwelling
on it, and referring things back to it."

Mr. Burford had taken off his spectacles,
and now quoted, as if to himself : " For-
getting those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are
before, I press toward the mark for the
prize."

Mr. Malone warmly approved. ' I am

156

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

with Paul there," he said. " He spoke
horse-sense on *most subjects. And,
General, for your consolation, -I'll give you
another text : ' Instead of thy fathers thou
shalt have children, whom thou mayest
make princes in all lands.' "

As the rest of the party were rowed
shoreward Mrs. Lavender was observed to
be deep in meditation. On Christopher
Normand offering her a penny for her
thoughts, she explained that she had been
reflecting upon the case of Mr. Malone.

;< I never saw such a change in a human
being/' she said. :< It looks to me as if
Merry weather had got religion. "

" Perhaps it is part of his training as
Presidential candidate," said Mr. Normand,
and was rebuked for his flippancy.

157

VIII

The Minister of the Parish comes to dinner. He
warns Mr. Jonas of the brittleness of all Democracies,
and in turn is presented with the just demands of
the British People. Mr. Burford pleads for an
Aristocracy.

THAT evening before dinner Mrs.
Lamont felt happy, and she communi-
cated her mood to her husband through
the open door of his dressing-room.

" I really think," she said, " that this
little party has been a success. Everybody
was in a bad humour at the start, but now
everybody has begun to like each other.
I can't help feeling, Arthur, that if such
very different people can come to an
understanding, the country must be able
to settle its worst troubles. Don't you
think so, dear ? "

158

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Colonel Lamont, busied with his tie,
id his mind on other things. " Mac-
Lilian's an infernal ruffian. I asked him
dine to-night and he has never answered.
's most annoying, Kathie, with Jonas
leaving to-morrow. I was most anxious
that the two should meet. There are
times when a passion for fishing becomes a
positive vice."

" And, Arthur," continued Mrs. Lamont,
:< I can't think what has come over Phyllis.
She's a new creature. She has recovered
all her interest in life. I think it is Mr.
Burford, for they are always together. I
wonder if I should do anything about it.
She has no mother and I feel it is my duty
to look after her."

" It would be a dashed good thing," said
Colonel Lamont, as he brushed his thinning
hair, " if they took a fancy to each other.
[e's a most capital good chap. I feel
ippier for merely looking at him. I only
ish he'd talk more . . . Confound Mac-

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•

millan. That's another fellow I wanted
him to meet."

But at dinner the erring minister ap-
peared. He had been away, he said,
when Colonel Lamont sent his note, and
had only received it an hour ago. He was
not apologetic ; rather it seemed that
apology was due to one who, with the Lith
in perfect order, had been deprived of an
evening's fishing. As he sat at table
opposite Lady Sevenoaks and between his
hostess and Mrs. Lavender, his figure was
like some stubborn furze bush which had
strayed into a parterre. He was more like
a deep-sea skipper than ever, as his great
grey eyes took in the scene before him.
So massive was his air that even the
substantial figure of Sir William Jacob
seemed weedy by comparison, and so
rugged his face that the homely counte-
nance of Mr. Jonas seemed almost refined.

" Macmillan," said his host, " youVe
missed a lot of interesting people by your
1 60

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

confounded obstinacy. You should have
been dining here every night. We out-
landish folk don't often get a chance of
improving our minds. You were a fool to
miss Morier. And Malone. We've had
some uncommonly good talk/'

The minister asked what they had talked
about, and Lady Sevenoaks replied.

* Everything on earth, and we came to
all kinds of contradictory conclusions. We
were told that we must preserve the his-
toric state, and at the same time that we
must forget most of its history. Mr.
Normand doesn't much believe in self-
government for the nation, but he would
like to see it in industry. We are to be
more fervent nationalists than ever, but to
give up most of our national rights to an
iternational League. The strikers who
tnt to hold up the country are not
>lsheviks, but Cobden and his poor old
tiddle-class friends were the worst kind.
re must scrap all medieval rubbish, and
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

we mustn't scrap it, because it's the most
valuable stuff we've got. (That was your
own contribution in your sermon, I think.)
The working man is the only real Conserva-
tive, and the only real Radical. We
mustn't speak about classes, for there is
only one class that counts and that's the
working class, and it's not a class, Mr.
Jonas says. We all agreed in abominating
political parties, but Mr. Strathbungo
convinced us that they were much more
important than political ideals, with the
exception of the confiscation of Highland
land, which he thought more important
than the Coalition ... I think that's a
fair summary."

" Lamont," said Mr. Macmillan, " I am
sorry I stuck to the Lith. I ought to have
been here. You seem to have talked
uncommon good sense."

' Glad to hear you say so," said the
host. " Lady Sevenoaks makes it sound
rather foolish."

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP .

" Not a bit. YouVe pulled all the
contradictions into the light of day. That's
what we want. Politics are a collection of
views, most of them contradictory and
nearly all of them true. Statesmanship
means admitting the contradictions and
paying due respect to the half-truths and
trying to harmonise them. The fool seizes
on a half-truth and exaggerates it, and
pretends it is the whole truth and the only
truth. The first step in wisdom is to keep
your balance and not take sides. You
seem to have followed that rule."

" What are your politics ? " Mr. Wyper
asked.

" None," was the answer. " I voted for
Strathbungo because I liked his candour.
I'll vote against him as soon as he starts
talking nonsense about free fishing. That
subject defines my politics. I want every-
body to have a chance of fishing that likes
it, but I want the fish to be there to be
caught. In the same way I want every

163 M 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

man in these islands to have a better life,
more comfort and more leisure, but I also
want the wealth to be there which can give
him these things/*

Mr. Jonas seemed struck by an illustra-
tion which his recent experience on the
Lith had enabled him to appreciate. He
also knew a man when he saw him, and
Mr. Macmillan's steady eyes and sagacious
brow were very impressive.

" We've all been talking too much," he
said. " I'd like to 'ear a fresh voice.
What's your view of the situation ? >:

The minister laughed. :< I'm not a
leader-writer to be able to give you that.
I'm a minister of the Gospel, and I'm
concerned with bigger things than the
whirligigs of politics. But up here I've
time to read and think, and I've studied
history, so I've certain views. You're a
Labour leader and a very powerful man,
Mr. Jonas. You're accustomed to be
spoken about respectfully in the papers
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and in Parliament. Well, I'm not respect-
ful by nature. You remember the story
>f the Scots girl who complained of a shy
lover that he was * senselessly ceevil.'
rou won't get any senseless civility from

me."

!< Go ahead," said Mr. Jonas. " Jimmie
and I never mind plain speaking."

" Well," said the minister, " I don't like
the threats that your fellows use. Miners
and railwaymen and transport workers,
when they have a grievance, get up on
their hind legs and warn the country that
they have the power and mean to use it.
That's folly. In the first place they
haven't the power. They're only a fraction
of the nation, and if they fight in an unjust
cause the nation will beat them. It may
take years, but they'll be beaten in the end.
The workers have never won, and never
will win, unless they're in the right. Why
this stupid bluster ? Bluster means smug-
ness, remember. What madness possessed

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you in the Coal Commission to entrust
your case to advertising journalists ? You
didn't come out of it extra well. The
ordinary Briton rather prefers a stupid
coal-master to those glib gentlemen. And
he enormously prefers Lord Durham . . .
Secondly, a settlement by force, even if it
succeeded, would be no real settlement.
It's sheer Prussianism to think it would,
and the sooner your fellows learn the lesson
of the war the better."

Mr. Jonas nodded. " I'm with you
there. But it's ill 'olding angry and
ignorant men. I grant you that the threat
business is wrong."

" The next thing I have to say is that it's
time you stopped gloating over the triumph
of Democracy. You talk as if it were a
thing inherent in nature, with all the forces
of nature working on its side. You're in
error. It's a fine thing, but it's the most
brittle thing on earth, and it can only be
maintained by constant watchfulness and
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

sacrifice. Cast your mind back in history
d consider how short has been the reign
f Democracy compared with that of any
ther form of government. It began a long
.e ago, but it's never had more than the
riefest run, Man, do you remember how
mebody in Herodotus spoke of it like a
over as being lovely in the very sound of
its name, and twenty-five years later you
had a popular Athenian statesman — popu-
lar, I say — declaring it was hardly worth
discussion since it was * acknowledged
insanity/ You will say that that was long
ago, and that the world is safer for it now.
It isn't. Democracy had a better chance
of life in the little State. In our dense
modern world we can only exist by the
help of law and order, and you get order
more easily — I don't say better, but more
easily — from the autocrat."

Mr. Jonas again assented. "I'm not
enying that. I'm a student of 'ist'ry
yself."

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

" Thirdly and lastly, "said Mr. Macmillan,
" go canny with liberty. It's by no means
the same thing as Democracy, but in this
country we want both. We must treat it
reverently, for it also is a delicate plant. I
think/1 he added, looking round the com-
pany, " that liberty is like the car of the
goddess Nerthus, which once a year was
brought from its island home to travel
among the German tribes. Wherever it
went, it left increase and happiness and
peace, but no man was allowed to lay hand
upon it ... Liberty is too precious a
thing for fools to paw."

The minister's remarks had revived
Mrs. Lament's fears, now for some days
dormant.

" Are you afraid of the future then, Mr.
Macmillan ? " she asked.

He laughed. " I don't think I'm afraid
of anything except a prosecution for heresy
in the Courts of my Church."

Mrs. Aspenden sighed, as if she thought
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that a consummation to be devoutly wished
for. Mr. Macmillan was not her idea of a
priest.

''' But Bolshevism ? " quavered Mrs.
Lamont.

" Oh, Bolshevism ! I regard the mild
British variety as an inoculation against
the dangerous foreign kind. We wouldn't
be human if we didn't have a dose of it."

Mr. Jonas was looking curiously at the
speaker, and their eyes met. Something in
each pleased the other, and they smiled
with that, sudden understanding that is
occasionally arrived at between men who
have but newly met.

" I apologise, Lamont/' said Mr. Mac-
millan. ;< I've been talking as if I were in
the pulpit. I didn't come here to talk,
but to listen. I want instruction, since I
have been foolish enough to go fishing all
the week . . . Mr. Jonas, tell a lone
country minister what you and your friends
have come forth for to seek."
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Mr. Jonas/ nothing loth, leaned his
elbows on the table, as was his habit, and
looked round the company. " I'm glad
to 'ave the chance," he said, 4< more
especially as we've been playing round so
many subjects without settling anything.
I'm. not one that thinks any reform is a
simple job, but it's my business to study
the people and I can tell you what they
mean to 'ave in some form or other."

" Mean to have ? " queried Mr. Mac- "
millan.

" Yes, mean to 'ave. That isn't a
threat, because we know we've right on our
side and can convince any honest man
... I'll put it this way. We've 'ad a
great war, and it's been a war of the rank
and file. We 'aven't 'ad any Napoleon
playing skittles with the enemy because of
his peculiar genius. We've 'ad good
Generals, but the folk that did the job
were just the ordinary British soldiers
out of every class and calling. The
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

war's been a glorification of the average
man."

" I agree," said Mr. Macmillan, " pro-
vided you admit he isn't only the working
man."

" True enough, but the workers 'ave the
biggest numbers and therefore they 'ave a
big claim to be 'card. They want to know
what the war has been fought for. They've
been defending England, but England's
got to be worth their while to defend.
They've cleaned up Prussianism abroad,
and they aren't coming back to it at 'ome.
They want a bigger share of England —
more leisure, more chances, better wages
and a better life.'"'

1 You are aware," said Sir William
Jacob, " that, according to a recent cal-
culation, 75 per cent, of the total product
of our wealth is distributed among the
workers."

" I am aware, and it doesn't alter the
argument. I am not wanting a levelling
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

down of incomes all round, for I know very
well that it would only give each man a
shilling or two more. What we are asking
for is a better system. You're not getting
the best value out of men as things stand
now. We want far more production, but
you won't 'ave it by merely begging the
men to work 'arder. We want a new deal.
There would be no limitation of output,
no stupid Union restrictions, if every man
had a direct interest in the thiag and knew
he wasn't slaving to fill idle men's pockets."

" I don't believe in profit-sharing," said
Lady Sevenoaks. " My father tried it
and it led to endless bickering arid sus-
picion."

" No more do I," said Mr. Jonas ; " not
the ordinary kind. The working man
wants to know 'ow the profits are arrived
at and to 'ave a say himself in the distribu-
tion. To dote out a few 'alf pence extra
and ask him to be grateful for them is just
Prussianism. To tell him to trust his
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

* employer who knows the business better
than Jirn is also Prussianism. He is not
going to 'ave any of it, and I'll tell you why.
Because the war 'as made him conscious
for the first time that he is a free man."

;< I'll put it this way," he continued.
' There are just the three things in industry
—capital, management and labour. Capital
is necessary, but not in the same way as
the others. It's like the lubricating oil in
a machine. We need it and we must buy
it at a fair price. I am for giving capital
an honest return and a safe return. Beyond
that I'd divide the profits between labour
and management . . . Now, mark this.
Labour has an uncommon good notion of
the real expert and it isn't likely to stint
him. It knows- that good management is
life and death to it and it will pay a big
price for it. But it wants to know at the
same time that the money isn't being wasted
in order to let some fat old Jew keep ten
motor cars . . . Now, if you cut down the

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

lifeless material thing, capital, to its fair
price and give the sporting chance of profits
to the living things, management and labour,
and let labour also have a say in its manage-
ment, you'll do two things. You'll lay
suspicion, which is always 'alf the trouble,
and you'll give the working man an
incentive to put his back into his job, for
he'll know that he is earning profits only
for himself and his nominees."

Christopher Normand approved. " But
how are you going to work nationalisation
into a scheme like that ? " he asked. " The
other day I saw in the papers that you
were clamouring to nationalise the mines
and the railways, and, I believe, shipping
also. You say the working man wants the
best management and is prepared to pay
high for it, because he knows his own
comfort depends on it. But he won't be
able to do that if his industry is nationalised.
His managers will be Civil Service officials,
not the best men bought in the open market.
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

And he won't have direct self-government
in his work, for he'll have to share his
direction of it with every Tom, Dick and
Harry who has a vote."

Mr. Jonas smiled ruefully. " Rome
wasn't built in a day, Mr. Normand. I'm
not much in love with nationalisation.
There was a time when I was young and
callow and wanted every blessed thing
made a department of the State. Now
I've lost my confidence in any Civil Ser-
vice. We can improve on the present one,
but we'll never get the brains and the
ginger into it that a private show can
command. But nationalisation might be
a good first step. The trouble in the other
way is to know 'ow to begin. You want
to get the smaller shops grouped together
before you can start, and that would take a
bit of doing. If the State took over a big
industry, that would 'appen automatically,
and you'd also get the question of the
future of its capital settled right away.

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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

Then a little later, when we've found our
balance, we'll take the next step "

Mr. Macmillan had been listening in-
tently with a somewhat grave face. " You
talk of machinery, Mr. Jonas, and I
daresay you talk good sense. Heaven
knows I don't quarrel with the things you
aim at. We can't pick up again the ragged
mantle of 1914. But is it not possible
that you think too much of machinery ?
I am a minister of Christ and I have another
question to ask. The workers want more
leisure, but what will they do with it ?
They want a share in the government of
their own work, but have you made sure
that they have the qualities for govern-
ment ? You say truly that the war was
won by the ordinary man, but it was won
by his spirit. If he is going to win the
peace you dare not forget that spirit. The
finest machinery on earth will not save his
soul."

There was a slight hush, for the gravity
176

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

of the minister's voice had brought some
subtle change into the atmosphere. Then
Mr. Burford spoke.

' The only hope for Democracy is to
make it an aristocracy, "

* That is one of the most sensible
remarks I've ever heard," said Mr. Mac-
mil Ian, as the party, on Colonel Lament's
advice, moved out of doors into the sweet-
scented night.

177 N

IX

In which Mr. Burford sees visions, and the Rev.
Mr. Macmillan propounds a parable.

THE lawns, which dropped into slopes
of heather and then into the meadows of
the valley, lay golden under a moon three-
quarters full. The stream was outlined in
long curves of light, and the sea beyond
was like a sheet of crisped metal. The'
mainland hills were only clouds, but in the
near and middle distances every object
stood out sharp in a monotone of chryso-
prase. Wafts of rich scents — hawthorn
and young grass and bog-myrtle and pine
— drifted up from below, and ever and
again a light wind would bring the delicate
saltness of the sea. Somewhere far off a
178

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

long a minister in city slums, I am a little
of a scholar, and I have served for years
with my fellows under the shadow of
death. I claim therefore to know some-
thing of the human heart. Believe me,
man will never live by bread alone. If we
are to make this earth of ours a better
habitation we must first purify our spirit/'
Looking round at the magical landscape,
he quoted some lines of Coleridge :

" Would we aught behold of higher worth
Than the inanimate cold world allowed
To the poor loveless ever-anxious crowd,
Ah ! from the soul itself must issue forth
A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud
Enveloping the earth."

Mr. Burford spoke — rather slowly at
first, like one without dogma and feeling
vaguely towards truth. His soft pleasant
burr intensified his air of hesitation.

;< I think we are at the crossroads/' he

said. ' I agree with all that Dan says

about what the people want. But I think

they are asking too little. They must

180

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

have more, and if they do not get the one
thing more they have got nothing. I ask
for the workers something far bigger than
ordinary wages and power. I want them
to have the wages of the spirit and power
over their own souls. "

1 This is the way I look at it," he went
on. " Every industry is asking for a fresh
deal and each has a certain amount of right
on its side. The miners have their claims,
and the railway men, and so forth, and they
make it a point of honour to carry them
intact. That would be well enough if the
whole country were miners or railwaymen,
and if a careful Heaven had provided a
safe market for the results of their work.
But presently other industries will get
anxious and follow their example, and each
will be able to make out a good case for
itself — if it stood alone. But the sum of
these good cases is a bad case. Coal
becomes too dear and freights too high for
other industries to work at a profit ; the

l8l N* 2

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

cost of living soars up, so that the men who
have got what they ask find that it doesn't
give them what they expected, and they
ask more. Then the whole economic
fabric cracks, for the different parts of it
have forgotten their interdependence, and
the result is ruin."

" It needn't be that, Jimmie," said Mr.
Jonas, " if they'll 'ave cqinmonsense."

" Yes, commonsense. A sense of com-
munity. And that means that each man
has to let live as well as live, and think
of others than himself and his fellow-
unionists. He must take the big view
as a citizen. How are you going to
get that, Dan ? . . . Let me put it in
another way. Supposing this competition
in demands didn't knock the bottom out of
our wealth, it would still be an accursed
thing. What are they demanding ? You
say, the means to a better life. But what
kind of a better life is a man to have if he
thinks only of making tight bargains ? He
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

learns to have no pride in his craft, and no
care for it except its cash value. He has
more leisure, but he is a poorer creature
than he was before, and he has nothing
to fill his leisure with. He has more money,
but no better things to spend it on. Why,
man, if you improve his material condition
without giving him something to work
towards, his latter end will be worse than
the beginning. You are sending him with
a shove down the road to savagery . . .
At any cost you must give him the larger
view, if he is to make anything of the
victory he wins."

Mr. Burford had lost his shyness and
his voice held the little group in the moon-
light.

" Look at the war," he said. " There
the workers of Britain took the larger view.
They didn't believe the lie that patriotism
mattered nothing to them, and that they
would be as well off under the Kaiser.
They didn't fight for themselves only, but

183

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

for the little nations that were being
butchered. And when they fought for
themselves it was for the greatness in them.
They had a bad enough time in the real
England, but they were willing to fight for
an ideal England that the dullest rever-
enced. They knew, though they never
said it, that any pride of manhood that was
left to them, any liberty, any hope, could
be preserved only by sacrifice. And they
made the sacrifice . . . What we have to
learn is that the war is not over and never
will be over, and that no victory can be
maintained except by sacrifice. Every
man and woman in this land must learn

it."

" I think I see," said Phyllis softly.
" We must give ourselves to peace as
wholeheartedly as we gave ourselves to
war. In the war the unhappy, restless
people were the profiteers and embusques
and pacifists, not the First and Second
Hundred Thousand. Now our pessimists
184

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

are those who accept change but won't
face up to paying the price. "

:< I hope that some of us do," said Lady
Guidwillie. " I am old and I haven't
much left to care for, but they can have it
all if it's going to prevent the war being
fought in vain. I think that is true of my
class."

The word annoyed Mr. Wyper, and he
asked, " What class ? " He was told
" Old-fashioned women who have no boys
left," in a tone so gentle that he regretted
having spoken.

" Nearly all my pals have been killed,"
said Mr. Maldwin. :< It's a pretty empty
world nowadays, and there's nothing for
fellows like me to do except to make the
best of what remains. That's what we've
been spared from the Boche bullets for.
I'd be glad to chuck everything I have into
the common stock if it would help the
cause my pals died for. But we are
puzzled, Mr. Burford. We want to help,

185

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

and here come the Labour men with a big
stick shouting that they are masters and
are going to have what they jolly well ask.
That's bad business, just when we ought
to get together and hammer out a
decent plan."

cc Ah, you misunderstand them," said
Mr. Burford. " They're only puzzled like
you. The ordinary man is a left-handed
chap and he's apt to have left-handed
leaders. The man who roars about his
rights doesn't mean that he wants to trample
on everybody else's. He only roars loud
to get a hearing. Don't you believe that
the idealism we saw in the war is dead in
peace. I know the working-man better
than his Union officials — better than you,
Dan. He's a bigger chap than the men
that claim to speak for him. He's sane
and he's just, and, if you give him half a
chance, he has imagination. Why, the
Englishman has far more poetry in him
than the Celt, only he hasn't got it at the
186

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

end of his tongue. You must dig deep
down to find it. And he's got more
humour than any race on earth, and that
will be his salvation."

' Humour ! yes," said Mr. Normand ;
and he quoted as if to himself the words of
Burke : " The ancient and inbred integrity,
honesty, good-nature and good-humour of
the people of England."

( He hasn't had many chances," Mr.
Burford went on. " And now he wants
to have every chance that's going. He
wants to come into his heritage — all of it.
We have to keep him up to that, and, like
in the fairy tale, to see that he doesn't get
the jewels without the eye-salve. Thank
God, at the bottom of his heart he wants
the best things. You folk, to whom books
have been a commonplace ever since you
can remember and who have had your
education provided for you like regular
meals, don't know the hunger in poor men
for these despised privileges. There's only

187

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

one key to all our problems to-day, and
that is to give the workers the same trea-
sures of knowledge that hitherto have
belonged only to the few. Then you will
make our democracy safe for the world,
for you will have made it an aristo-
cracy."

Mr. Macmillan nodded. " Right,'' he
said ; " but don't let us forget what Dr.
Johnson said about education in Scotland.
He said it was like the ration of food in a
beleaguered city — everybody had a little,
but nobody had enough to make a square
meal/'

' It's a square meal we're going to give,"
said Mr. Burford. " He won't be content
with less. Bless him for his exorbitant
demands. We have to train him to take
the long view and to have the means of
making out of better economic conditions
a better life. We have to train him to
govern himself and his industry, and to
produce leaders that can lead and ministers
188

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

that can administer. In a year or two most
likely there will be a Labour Government
in power, and we have to make certain
that it will be a wise Government. I think
all that can be done, because the worker
is going to meet you halfway. Aye, and
more than halfway. You see, at bottom
he is very humble. You remember Bun-
yan, ' I have known many labouring men
that have got good estates in this Valley
of Humiliation ' . . . You don't know the
rare material there is in this old country.
I have been up and down among ordinary
folk for years, and I can tell what is in
their hearts. There was a time when they
cried for nothing but education in eco-
nomics, because they were still feeling their
way to the first stage in a new life. But
they are past that now. They don't want
only to breed Labour leaders with a
smattering of political economy, for they
have begun to put that science in its proper
place in the scheme of things. And they
189

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

don't want only technical education to help
them to a better paid job. They leave that
cry to the Chambers of Commerce and the
employers. They want nothing less than
the whole treasure-house of knowledge,
everything that makes what we call an
educated man."

' I tell you/* and the speaker's voice
warmed, " I tell you that I have known
poor men who spent their evenings with
Plato and their scanty holidays with the
great poets. There's a thirst abroad, a
divine thirst, and the quenching of it is
the finest task before us. Give the worker
all the technical training he wants, but
don't deny him the humanities, for without
them he can never be a citizen . . . Think
of what you can make of him. Not culture
in the trashy sense, but the wise mind and
the keen spirit. He lives close to reality,
so you needn't fear that he will become a
pedant. You will make your academies
better places, for you will let the winds of
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THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

the world blow through them when you
open them to the Many instead of the
Few, and you will make a great nation, for
the Many will be also the Best."

" You will get," said Mr. Normand,
" what Falkland described, ' a College
situate in a purer air.J 3

" I'm not dreaming," said Mr. Burford.
"I'm an optimist because I know my
countrymen and believe in them most
mightily. It's because they ask such a lot
that there's good hope. We are always
telling each other what is the lesson of the
war. As I see it, it is the folly of arrogance.
We've beaten it in our enemies, and now
we've got to conquer it — every kind of it —
in ourselves. We want humility in every
soul, and humility can only come from
understanding. A man will not talk folly
if he has a sense of the wisdom of the past,
and he will not push his own claims too
far if he realises that he is part of the great
commonwealth of mankind. Knowledge
191

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

makes humility, and without humility
there can be no true humanity. "

Mr. Burford ceased, and for a little
silence reigned. His words seemed in
harmony with the dusky, scented world
and the shining spaces of the sky. Past
seemed in that moment to mingle with
present, the memories of the war with the
traditions of immemorial ages, and behind
all moved the kindly forces of earth which
daily re-create the life of man. Then Mr.
Macmillan spoke.

" I have got the answer I hoped for. It
is a great and noble prospect, but it wants
much girding of the loins. "

He got up from his chair and looked over
the glen. " For your comfort I will tell
you a story — a story that belongs to this
place and the folk that once lived here.
Among the old Gods of the North the
most beautiful was Balder, the Life-giver,
who brought morning after night and spring
after winter and quickened joy in youth and
192

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

hope in the old. But the day came when
he was pierced by the dart of his brother
Darkness, and went down to the House of
Hel far below the earth. The whole world
sorrowed for his loss. It tried to bring
him back by its tears, and every living
and lifeless thing in earth and heaven,
from the High Gods to the stones and
trees, wept for Balder. But he did not
come back. Yet, said the tale, some day
he would return. Some day twilight would
fall on Walhalla, and the proud Gods
would be destroyed in their last great fight.
They were fine Gods in Walhalla, but they
were proud and violent Gods with the
passions of their kind. Then would come
the Deluge, and from chaos a new earth
would arise, washed clean of pride. And
Balder, the Life-giver, would come again
from the House of Death to reign over a
regenerate world ... I wonder if that
may be our case. We have long been
trying to bring Balder back by our tears,

THE ISLAND OF SHEEP

but they were only tears of sentiment, and
arrogance still ruled our hearts. Now we
have passed through our Ragnarok and the
old pride has fallen. Perhaps the day is
near when Balder will wake from his
sleep."

He broke off suddenly. " Lament," he
cried, " there's a monstrous great fish
rising in the Cow Pool. Let's go and look
at him. Where's Burford ? "

Mrs. Lamont answered. " I think he
has gone for a walk with Phyllis in the
garden."

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