I have to dress." Tallente held out his hand good-humouredly.

His visitor made no immediate motion to take it.
"There was just one thing more I was asked to mention, sir," he said.
"I will be quite frank if I may.

My instructions were not to allude to it if your attitude were in the least conciliatory." "Go on," Tallente bade him curtly.
"There has been a rumour going about that some years ago--while the war was on, in fact--you wrote a very wonderful attack upon the trades unions.

This attack was so bitter in tone, so damning in some of its facts, and, in short, such a wonderful production, that at the last moment the late Prime Minister used his influence with you to suspend its publication.

It was held over, and in the meantime the attitude of the trades unions towards certain phases of the war was modified, and the collapse of Germany followed soon afterwards.