"Confound him," he said, "I won't see him." "You can't help it, I think," his aunt said, reflectively; "you will have to settle it sooner or later." I know pretty well what it was they had to settle--the Greenland affair that had hung in the air so long.

I knew it from hearsay, from Fox, vaguely enough.

Mr.Gurnard was said to recommend it for financial reasons, the Duc to be eager, Churchill to hang back unaccountably.

I never had much head for details of this sort, but people used to explain them to me--to explain the reasons for de Mersch's eagerness.

They were rather shabby, rather incredible reasons, that sounded too reasonable to be true.