As far as England was concerned, all negotiations were at an end, diplomacy had said its last word, and Germany was given twenty-four hours in which to reply.

Should a satisfactory answer not be forthcoming, England would uphold the neutrality she with others had sworn to respect by force of arms.

And at that one immense sigh of relief went up from the whole country.

Whatever now might happen, in whatever horrors of long-drawn and bloody war the nation might be involved, the nightmare of possible neutrality, of England's repudiating the debt of honour, was removed.
The one thing worse than war need no longer be dreaded, and for the moment the future, hideous and heart-rending though it would surely be, smiled like a land of promise.
Michael woke on the morning of Tuesday, the fourth of August, with the feeling of something having suddenly roused him, and in a few seconds he knew that this was so, for the telephone bell in the room next door sent out another summons.

He got straight out of bed and went to it, with a hundred vague shadows of expectation crossing his mind.