"I don'tknow. I've been puzzling mywits toknow. They've done

all sorts of things-"

"That's Lord Wrassleton," she interrupted, "whose leg was broken-

youremember?-at Spion Kop."

"It's healed very well. I like the gold lace and the white glove

resting, with quite a nice awkwardness, on the sword. When I was a

little boy I wanted to wear clothes like that. And the stars! He's

got the V. C. Most of these people here have at any rate shown

pluck, you know-brought something off."

"Not quite enough," she suggested.

"Ithink that's it," I said. "Not quite enough-not quite hard

enough," I added.

She laughed and looked at me. "You'd like to make us," she said.

"What?"

"Hard."

"I don'tthink you'll go on if you don't get hard."

"We shan't be sopleasant if we do."

"Well, there my puzzledwits come in again. I don'tsee why an

aristocracy shouldn't be rather hard trained, and yet kindly.I'm

not convinced that the resources of education are exhausted. I want

to better this, because it already looks sogood."

"How are we to do it?" asked Mrs. Redmondson.

"Oh, there you have me! I've been spending my time lately in trying

to answer that! It makes me quarrel with"-I held up my fingers and

ticked the items off-"the public schools, the private tutors, the

army exams, the Universities, the Church, the generalattitude of

the country towards science and literature-"

"We all do," said Mrs. Redmondson. "We can't begin again at the

beginning," she added.

"Couldn't one," I nodded at the assembly in general, start a

movement?

"There's the Confederates," she said, with a faint smile that masked

a gleam of curiosity… "You want," she said, "to say to the

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