It was an episode of unrecorded history.

He rose to his feet and raised his hat.
"There will be no war," he said solemnly.
The Cabinet Minister passed on with a lighter step.

Dominey, more clearly than ever before, understood the subtle policy which had chosen for his great position a man as chivalrous and faithful and yet as simple-minded as Terniloff.

He looked after the retreating figure of the Cabinet Minister with a slight smile at the corner of his lips.
"In a time like this," he remarked significantly, "one begins to understand why one of our great writers--was it Bernhardi, I wonder ?--has written that no island could ever breed a race of diplomatists." "The seas which engirdle this island," the Ambassador said thoughtfully, "have brought the English great weal, as they may bring to her much woe.
The too-nimble brain of the diplomat has its parallel of insincerity in the people whose interests he seems to guard.

I believe in the honesty of the English politicians, I have placed that belief on record in the small volume of memoirs which I shall presently entrust to you.