He seemed suddenly to see him again as he had looked when he was dancing.

And almost at the same moment he saw other scenes than ball-rooms and heard sounds other than those drawn forth by musicians screened with palms.

He liked the boy.

He was not his son, but he liked him.

If he had been his son, he thought--! He had been through the monster munition works at Essen several times and he had heard technical talks of inventions, the sole reason for whose presence in the world was that they had the power to blow human beings into unrecognisable, ensanguined shreds and to tear off limbs and catapult them into the air.