The members of the great Gosling family, in offices, warehouses and shops followed the line of least resistance, while making some assertion of their rights as citizens. George Gosling's arguments with his crony Flack were excellently representative. "What yer think of this 'closed door' business?" asked Flack. "Goin' a bit too far, in my opinion," returned Gosling judicially. Flack's natural incredulity had inclined him in the same direction, but his colleague's certainty swung him round at once. "I ain't so sure o' that," he said. "Looks to me as things is going pretty bad." "Bad enough, I grant you," returned Gosling. "But there isn't no need for us to lose our 'eads over it. Take it all round, you know, it's pretty certain as things isn't as bad as is made out, whereas, on the other 'and, the 'closed door' policy'd mean ruin and starvation for 'undreds of thousands--there's no gettin' round that." "Better a few 'undred thousands than the 'ole male population," said Flack. "If it come to that, but it won't; no fear, not by a long chalk, it won't," replied Gosling. "What's got to be done is to get the Local Government Board to work. We've got to 'ave a regular system o' quarantine established, that's what we've got to 'ave." It did, indeed, appear the most practical form of prevention at the moment; it is hard to see what other measures could have been adopted. The supporters of the "closed door" policy soon began to lose adherents. The scheme was obviously alarmist, far-fetched and utterly impracticable.... 4 Through February and the early part of March the plague spread through Central Europe, but not with an alarming rapidity. In the second week of March, Berlin was reporting a weekly roll of over five hundred deaths attributable to this cause, and Vienna was second with between four and five hundred. In St Petersburg and Moscow the figures were no higher, and there were as yet comparatively few cases in France, and none in Spain or Portugal. Many authorities were of opinion that the mortality had reached the maximum, and that the plague would work itself out in the course of a few more weeks. Moreover it appeared that the early reports of the highly infectious character of the plague must have been grossly exaggerated, for as yet there had been not a single case in the British Isles despite the enormous traffic between England and the Continent. It is true that the strictest quarantine had been established--it had been ascertained that the period of gestation of the germ was about fifty hours--but not one single case had so far been detained in quarantine ships or hospitals. It was argued from this that the plague was not infectious at all in the ordinary sense, and only mildly contagious; that it flourished in certain centres and was not easily transferable from one centre to another.