"My interest in your crockery," Norgate announced, "is non-existent. I have come to hear your offer. I have decided to retire--temporarily, at any rate--from the Diplomatic Service. I understand that I am in disgrace, and I resent it. I resent having had to leave Berlin except at my own choice. I am looking for a job in some other walk of life." Selingman nodded approvingly. "Forgive me," he said, "but it is true, then, that you are in some way dependent upon your profession?" "I am not a pauper outside it," Norgate replied, "but that is not the sole question. I need work, an interest in life, something to think about. I must either find something to do, or I shall go to Abyssinia. I should prefer an occupation here." "I can help you," Selingman said slowly, "if you are a young man of common sense. I can put you in the way of earning, if you will, a thousand pounds a year and your travelling expenses, without interfering very much with your present mode of life." "Selling crockery?" Selingman flicked the ash from the end of his cigar. He shook his head good-naturedly. "I am a judge of character, young man," he declared. "I pride myself upon that accomplishment. I know very well that in you we have one with brains. Nevertheless, I do not believe that you would sell my crockery." "It seems easy enough," Norgate observed. "It may seem easy," Selingman objected, "but it is not. You have not, I am convinced, the gifts of a salesman. You would not reason and argue with these obstinate British shopkeepers. No! Your value to me would lie in other directions--in your social position, your opportunities of meeting with a class above the commercial one in which I have made my few English friends, and in your own intelligence." "I scarcely see of what value these things would be to a vendor of crockery." "They would be of no value at all," Selingman admitted. "It is not in the crockery business that I propose to make use of you. I believe that we both know that. We may dismiss it from our minds. It is only fencing with words. I will take you a little further. You have heard, by chance, of the Anglo-German Peace Society?" "The name sounds familiar," Norgate confessed. "I can't say that I know anything about it." "It was I who inaugurated that body," Selingman announced. "It is I who direct its interests." "Congratulate you, I'm sure. You must find it uphill work sometimes." "It is uphill work all the time," the German agreed. "Our great object is, as you can guess from the title, to promote good-feeling between the two countries, to heal up all possible breaches, to soothe and dispel that pitiful jealousy, of which, alas! too much exists. It is not easy, Mr. Norgate. It is not easy, my young friend. I meet with many disappointments. Yet it is a great and worthy undertaking." "It sounds all right," Norgate observed. "Where do I come in?"