is we must do what we can. The shrubs will be of some small
service. Two of the oxygen tubes are ready to be turned on at an
instant's notice, so that we cannot be taken unawares. At the
same time, it would be well not to go far from the room, as the
crisis may be a sudden and urgent one."

There was a broad, low window opening out upon a balcony. The
view beyond was the same as that which we had already admired
from the study. Looking out, I could see no sign of disorder
anywhere. There was a road curving down the side of the hill,
under my very eyes. A cab from the station, one of those
prehistoric survivals which are only to be found in our country
villages, was toiling slowly up the hill. Lower down was a nurse
girl wheeling a perambulator and leading a second child by the
hand. The blue reeks of smoke from the cottages gave the whole
widespread landscape an air of settled order and homely comfort.
Nowhere in the blue heaven or on the sunlit earth was there any
foreshadowing of a catastrophe. The harvesters were back in the
fields once more and the golfers, in pairs and fours, were still
streaming round the links. There was so strange a turmoil within
my own head, and such a jangling of my overstrung nerves, that
the indifference of those people was amazing.

"Those fellows don't seem to feel any ill effects," said I,
pointing down at the links.

"Have you played golf?" asked Lord John.

"No, I have not."