And in another sense they disappeared: as Will said, "Plant an Erckmann in England, and up comes an Erskine." Poor souls, if they had changed their names _before_ the war and if some one could have performed an operation to rid Sir Adolphus of that appalling guttural accent... I really began to feel sorry for them when all their friends--led, if you please, by my Lady Maitland--turned the cold shoulder. "Satisfy me," I said to Arthur, "that he is a truly loyal subject, and I should like to see if I could not shew him a little kindness." "He's a noxious creature," said Arthur with his usual intolerance, "but all these stories of spying and of blackmailing ministers are sheer flumdiddle. It isn't worth his while. Whoever wins, Erskine will make money. He's technically loyal; but he's a man without patriotism, because the whole world is his country. For the Lord's sake, don't throw _your_ mantle over him; as long as there _are_ national distinctions, I object to the way these international Jew financiers settle in England for their own convenience." "I am not," I said, "concerned with that. You may be right. Perhaps we should all of us have done better to hold aloof and offer him no welcome at the outset. But, do you know, I feel a certain responsibility? _Having_ been received here, having _poured_ money like water into the pockets of his so-called friends, will he not form a low view of our sincerity and goodwill if every one abandons him at a time like this? I am disinterested: we have accepted nothing from him, we can look to him for nothing; but there is a reproach which I feel it my duty to remove." I could not make Arthur see that people like Connie Maitland, _liée_ with the poor man one moment and throwing him to the wolves the next... We are not _all_ of us like that in England. "Well, for Heaven's sake, don't ask him when _I'm_ here," was the utmost encouragement I got from my husband. Truly honestly, I think this stubborn opposition drove me perhaps farther than I had first intended to go. A day or two later I found myself in the same house as Sir Adolphus and I _spoke_ to him... "You," I said, "do not know me; and I only know you by sight, though I have long been acquainted with your record of generous support to the cause of music. Will you allow a total stranger to tell you her disgust with the venomous attacks which have been made on you since the beginning of the war?" Little enough, you may think; but I believe those were the first kind words that he had heard for three or four years. The man is _not_ prepossessing, but we formed quite a friendship... "Will not you and Lady Erskine," I said, "come and dine with me some night? I am not in a position to _entertain_ in any sense of the word; my boy is at the front, my husband is away on business; but perhaps, if a family party would not bore you..."