Page:Wounded Souls.djvu/282

 there was all the inflammable stuff here for a first-class domestic 'flare-up.'

"What else?" asked Ethel coldly, and meeting her brother's challenging eyes with a perfectly steady gaze. She was a handsome girl with regular, classical features, and tight lips, as narrow-minded, I imagined, as a mid-Victorian spinster in a cathedral town, and as hard as granite in principle and prejudice.

Wickham weakened, after signs of an explosion of rage. He spoke gently, and revealed a hope to which I think he clung desperately.

"When Elsa comes you will all fall in love with her."

It was the worst thing he could have said, though he was unconscious of his "gaffe."

His sister Ethel reddened, and I could see her mouth harden.

"So far, I have remarkably little love for Germans, male or female."

"I hope we shall behave with Christian charity," said Lady Brand.

Sir Amyas Brand coughed uneasily, and then tried to laugh off his embarrassment for my benefit.

"There will be considerable scandal in my constituency!"

"To hell with that!" said Brand irritably. "It's about time the British public returned to sanity."

"Ah!" said Sir Amyas, "there's a narrow border-line between sanity and shell-shock. Really, it is distressing what a number of men seem to come back with disordered nerves. All these crimes, all these cases of violence"

It gave him a chance of repeating a leading article which he had read that morning in The Times. It provided a conversation without controversy until the end of dinner.