was tormented by the idea of an interminable afternoon before me. I sat
idly for a long time. Behind my back two men were talking.

"Churchill ... oh, no better than the rest. He only wants to be found
out. If I've any nose for that sort of thing, there's something in the
air. It's absurd to be told that he knew nothing about it.... You've
seen the _Hour?_" I got up to go away, but suddenly found myself
standing by their table.

"You are unjust," I said. They looked up at me together with an immense
surprise. I didn't know them and I passed on. But I heard one of them
ask:

"Who's that fellow?" ...

"Oh--Etchingham Granger...."

"Is he queer?" the other postulated.

I went slowly down the great staircase. A knot of men was huddled round
the tape machine; others came, half trotting, half walking, to peer over
heads, under arm-pits.

"What's the matter with that thing?" I asked of one of them.

"Oh, Grogram's up," he said, and passed me. Someone from a point of
vantage read out:

"The Leader of the House (Sir C. Grogram, Devonport) said that...." The
words came haltingly to my ears as the man's voice followed the jerks of