I then told him that Lord Kitchener had been down at Knole with the Sackvilles and had spent a whole day in taking blotting-paper impressions of the beautiful mouldings of the doors for his house at Broome.

"Does that make you feel safe ?" he demanded; and then, pointing to a maidservant at the sideboard, he added, "See that parlourmaid ?--well, she's leaving; yesterday I spent two hours at Mrs.Hunt's registry office interviewing parlourmaids.

Now, do you feel safe ?" His return to the Admiralty brought him no happiness--save when he sent Admiral Sturdee to sea to avenge the death of Admiral Cradock.

He was perhaps too insistent on victory, a crushing and overwhelming victory, for a Fleet on which hung the whole safety of the Allies, and a Fleet which had experienced the deadly power of the submarine.

He was certainly not too old for work.