"I see. You'd rather Carl and Ludwig stuck bayonets into George and Nicky, and that Ronny and Dorothy and Alice Lathom cried." "Bayonetting isn't my business." "Your own safety is. How can you bear to let other men fight for you?" "They're not fighting for _me_, Mother. You ask them if they are, and see what they'll say to you. They're fighting for God knows what; but they're no more fighting for me than they're fighting for Aunt Emmeline." "They _are_ fighting for Aunt Emmeline. They're fighting for everything that's weak and defenceless." "Well, then, they're not fighting for me. I'm not weak and defenceless," said Michael. "All the more shame for you, then." He smiled, acknowledging her score. "You don't mean that, really, Mummy. You couldn't resist the opening for a repartee. It was quite a nice one." "If," she said, "you were only _doing_ something. But you go on with your own things as though nothing had happened." "I _am_ doing something. I'm keeping sane. And I'm keeping sanity alive in other people." "Much you care for other people," said Frances as she left the room. But when she had shut the door on him her heart turned to him again. She went down to Anthony where he waited for her in his room. "_Well?_" he said. "It's no use. He won't go." And Frances, quite suddenly and to her own surprise, burst into tears. He drew her to him, and she clung to him, sobbing softly. "My dear--my dear. You mustn't take it to heart like this. He's as obstinate as the devil; but he'll come round." He pressed her tighter to him. He loved her in her unfamiliar weakness, crying and clinging to him. "It's not that," she said, recovering herself with dignity. "I'm glad he didn't give in. If he went out, and anything happened to him, I couldn't bear to be the one who made him go." After all, she didn't love England more than Michael. They were silent. "We must leave it to his own feeling," she said presently. But Anthony's heart was hard against Michael. "He must know that _public_ feeling's pretty strong against him. To say nothing of _my_ feeling and _your_ feeling." * * * * * He did know it. He knew that they were all against him; his father and his mother, and John and Dorothy. Because he couldn't bear to look at Dorothy, and couldn't bear Dorothy to look at him, he kept out of her way as much as possible. As for public opinion, it had always been against him, and he against it.