says he, and the round cheeks were persuaded to dimple. "Will you come now and look at a pipkin?" "I doubt I am unworthy, sir." Mr. Healy offered his arm. "Nay, but indeed I had something to say." "Is it peace, now?" said Mr. Healy laughing. "I fear 'tis not." Mr. Healy assumed an aspect of great fear. "Nay, sir, pray listen." Her blue eyes were wide and very serious. "For the second day at least I have marked a man watching the house "I will cast my eye upon him," said Mr. Healy. They went out, and Mr. Healy was turning to the stairs when the girl opened the door of her own room. ""Tis only from this window. He lurks behind the buttress," she said over her shoulder. Mr. Healy stood on the threshold a moment, then strode into the little white room. His sharp eyes puckered to peer through the sunlight; then he chuckled. "Sure, 'tis an ancient acquaintance," says he. "I will go salute him." Mistress Leigh opened the casement. She beheld Mr. Healy go forth to the street. She heard Mr Healy remark: "Jack, my dear, come out of your box." She saw the spy hurry away up the street. She heard Mr. Healy cry, "Convey my private salutations to Lord Sherborne." And then she came out to meet Mr. Healy on the stairs. ""Tis purely a private friendship of Beaujeu's," said Mr. Healy. "And no danger?" Mr Healy laughed. ""Tis an adequate gentleman, our Beaujeu. Will you come to my pipkins now?" The Monthly Review. "All unworthy, sir," says Mistress Leigh, with a little mocking curtsey. So they came to the fragrant window, and: "God Almighty first planted a garden,'" said Mr. Healy, after my Lord Bacon. "But not in pipkins," the girl murmured demurely. "Sure, there were merits in Eden," Mr. Healey agreed. "Two folks could scarce house in a pipkin." "But at least they would have no room for the serpent." "Faith, I doubt if the serpent gentleman visits at all without invitation." Mr. Healy stooped to cut a dark flower. "And do you think you could keep him out of your Eden, sir?" Mr. Healy stood up with the flower in his hand. He smiled down at the fair roguish face, at her bright blue eyes. The light was falling, a wonder of glory, on the red gold of her hair, and beneath it her neck was white. Mr. Healy laid his hand gently on her little thin arm where the lace fell away from it. "My dear lass," says he softly, "I would be asking you that. Do you think I could keep the serpent beyond the hedge?" "I doubt it depends on your Eve, sir," said Mistress Nancy Leigh, laughing at him. "Faith, 'tis so!" Mr. Healy agreed and bent over her. "La, sir! And when there are dead leaves to be looked for!" cried the girl starting back. "See now!" and she pointed one fair finger to a leaf garishly yellow, afar. "Sure, I was forgetting my duty altogether," says Healy smiling at her, and put down his flower and moved solemnly to the offending leaf. Mistress Leigh and the flower departed together. Mr. Healy turned round again: "Oh Eve, Eve!" said he aloud - and heard the ripple of a laugh. (To be continued.) H. C. Bailey. AN INCURSION INTO DIPLOMACY. I have long owed a full statement to a number of my countrymen, who once trusted me unreservedly with a considerable sum of money, as to how this money was spent. The occasion was in January of 1902, when, through the columns of the "Times," I appealed for funds to enable me to publish and distribute abroad, in the different languages of Europe, a simple and direct statement of the British case in the Boer War, and an answer to those charges of inhumanity against our soldiers which were rife upon the Continent. Those charges, if left unrefuted, were not only a stain upon our national repute, but were also a very grave practical danger, for they inclined a large body of the public in each country towards a moral sympathy with the Boers which greatly strengthened their position. There was even reason to fear that such sympathy might at last translate itself into action, and that, carried away by the feelings of their people, and encouraged possibly by some transitory Boer success, intervention from abroad might even at the eleventh hour throw oil on the dying flames. It was this obvious danger which caused me to embark upon a small unauthorized incursion into amateur diplomacy. In the first place, let me apologize if I tell the narrative in a personal way. I know no other way to tell it, since I was both the originator and, in conjunction with Mr. Reginald J. Smith, the carrier out of the idea. But let me hasten to say that I am fully aware that there are many who could have done the work with greater authority and with higher literary skill. The only qualifications which I could urge were the negative ones, that I was not connected either with the Government or with the Army, and that therefore I could in no way be represented as a mere official mouthpiece. Against me was the fact that I was best known as a writer of fiction, a personal argument which was freely used both abroad and at home. However, if one always waited for the ideal man to come along, nothing would ever get done; so I fell back upon the excuse that the thing needed doing, and that, however imperfectly I did it, it was none the less to the best of my power. How well I can remember the inception of my enterprise! The date was January 7, 1902. The day was a Tuesday. Sir Henry Thompson was holding that evening one of those charming "octave" dinners at which it was my occasional privilege to attend, and I was going up to town from Hindhead to keep the engagement. Sitting alone in a carriage I read the foreign correspondence of the "Times." In a single column there were accounts of meetings in all parts of Europe-notably one of some hundreds of Rhineland clergymen-protesting against our brutalities to our enemies. There followed a whole column of extracts from foreign papers, with grotesque descriptions of our barbarities. To any one who knew the easygoing British soldier or the character of his leaders the thing was unspeakably absurd; and yet, as I laid down the paper and thought the matter over, I could not but admit that these Continental people were acting under a generous and unselfish motive which was much to their credit. How could they help believing these things, and, believing them, was it not their duty by meeting, by article, by any means, to denounce them? Could we accuse them of being credulous? Would we not be equally so if all our accounts of any transaction came from one side, and were supported by such journalists and, above all, such artists as lent their pens and pencils, whether venally or not, to the Boer cause? Of course we would. And whose fault was it that our side of the question was not equally laid before the jury of the civilized world? Perhaps we were too proud, perhaps we were too negligent; but the fact was obvious that judgment was being given against us by default. How could they know our case? Where could they find it? If I were asked what document they could consult, what would I answer? Bluebooks and State papers are not for the multitude. There were books like FitzPatrick's "Transvaal from Within" or E. T. Cook's "Rights and Wrongs"; but these were expensive volumes, and not readily translated. Nowhere could be found a statement which covered the whole ground in a simple fashion. Why didn't some Briton draw it up? And then, like a bullet through my head, came the thought, "Why don't you draw it up yourself?" The next instant I was on fire with the idea. Never in my life have I been so conscious of a direct imperative call which drove every other thought from the mind. If I were a humble advocate, it was all the better, since I could have no axe to grind. I was fairly well posted in the facts already, as I had written an interim history of the war. I had seen something of the campaign, and possessed many documents which bore upon the matter. My plans widened every instant. I would raise money from the public, and by the sale of the book at home. With this I would translate it into every language. These translations should be given away wholesale. Every professor, every clergyman, every journalist, every politician, should have one put under his nose in his own language. In future, if they traduced us, they could no longer plead ignorance that there was another side to the question. Before I reached London all my programme was sketched out in my head. There was no item of it, I may add, which was not eventually carried through. Fortune was my friend. I have said that I was dining that night with Sir Henry Thompson. My neighbor at dinner was a gentleman whose name I had not caught. My mind being full of the one idea, my talk soon came round to it, and instead of my neighbor being bored, my remarks were received with a courteous and sympathetic attention which caused me to make even greater demands upon his patience. Having listened from the soup to the savory (often has my conscience rebuked me since), he ended by asking me mildly how I proposed to raise the money for these wide-reaching schemes. I answered that I would appeal to the public. He asked he how much would suffice. I answered that I could make a start with a thousand pounds. He remarked that it would take much more than that. "However," he added, "if a thousand pounds would go any way towards it, I have no doubt that sum could be got for you." "From whom?" I asked. He gave me his name and address and said, "I have no doubt that, if you carry out the scheme on the lines you suggest, I could get the money. When you have done your work, come to me, and we will see how it is best to proceed." I promised to do So, and thanked him for his encouragement. This was my first stroke of good luck. A second came next morning. I had occasion to call upon the publishing house of Smith, Elder & Co. over some other business, and during the interview I told Mr. Reginald Smith the plan that I had formed. Without a moment's hesitation he placed the whole machinery of his world-wide business at my disposal, without payment of any kind. From that moment he became my partner in the enterprise, and I found his counsel at every stage of as great help to me as the publishing services which he so generously rendered. Not only did he save heavy costs to the fund, but he arranged easily and successfully those complex foreign trans. actions which the scheme entailed. That morning I called at the War Office and was referred by them to the Intelligence Department, where every information which they possessed was freely put at my disposal. I then wrote to the "Times" explaining what it was that I was trying to do, and asking those who sympathized with my object to lend me their aid. Never was an appeal more generously or rapidly answered. My morning post upon the day after brought me a hundred and twenty-seven letters, nearly all of which contained sums drawn from every class of the community, and varying from the fifty pounds of an ex-premier to the half-crown of the widow of a private soldier. Most of the remittances were accompanied by letters which showed that, however, they might pretend in public to disregard it, the attitude of the foreign critics had really left a deep and bitter feeling in the hearts of our people. It was on January 9 that I was able to begin my task. Upon the 17th I had finished it. When the amount of matter is considered, and the number of researches and verifications which it entailed, I need not say that I had been absorbed by the work, and devoted, I dare say, sixteen hours a day to its accomplishment. So far as possible I kept my individual opinions in the background, and made a more effective case by marshalling the statements of eye-witnesses, many of them Boers, on the various questions of farm-burnings, outrages, concentration camps, and other contentious subjects. I made the comments as simple and as short as I could, while as to the accuracy of my facts, I may say that, save as to the exact number of farmhouses burned, I have never heard of one which has been seriously questioned. It was a glad day for me when I was able to lay down my pen with the feeling that my statement was as full and as effective as it was in me to make it. Meanwhile the subscriptions had still come steadily in, until nearly a thousand pounds had been banked by the time that the booklet was finished. The greater number of contributions were in small sums from people who could ill afford it. Among all the great ground landlords of London, drawing their huge unearned increments, I cannot trace one who supported an attempt to state his country's case, while my desk was filled with the postal orders of humble citizens. One notable feature was the number of governesses and others residing abroad whose lives had been embittered by their inability to answer the slanders which were daily uttered in their presence. Many of these sent their small donations. second pleasing feature was the number of foreigners resident in England who supported my scheme, in the hope that it would aid their own people to form a juster view. From Norwegians alone I received nearly fifty pounds with this object. If Britain's own children too often betrayed her at a crisis of her fate, she found at least warm friends among the strangers within her gates. Another point worth noting was that a disproportionate sum was from clergymen, which was explained by several of them as due to the fact that since the war began they had been pestered by anti-national literature, and took this means of protesting against it. A The proofs having been printed, I sent them to my chance acquaintance, as I had promised, and presently received an invitation to see him. He expressed his approval of the work, and handed me a banknote for £500, at the same time explaining that the money did not come from him. I asked if I might acknowledge it as from an anonymous donor-- "The donor would not object," said my friend. So I was able to head my list with "A Loyal Briton," who contributed £500, but even now I have been unable to obtain permission to publish the name of this generous donor. By this time the banking account had risen to some two thousand pounds, and we were in a position to put our foreign translations in hand. The British edition had in the meantime been published, the distribution being placed in the hands of Messrs. Newnes, who gave the enterprise whole-hearted aid. The book was retailed at sixpence, but as it was our desire that the sale should be pushed it was sold to the trade at about threepence. The result was to leave the main profit of the enterprise in the hands of the retailer. The sale of the pamphlet was very large-in fact, I should imagine that it approached a record in the time. Some 250,000 copies were sold in Great Britain very quickly, and about 300,000 within a couple of months. This great sale enabled us to add considerably to the fund by the accumulation of the small rebate which had been reserved upon each copy. Our financial position was very strong, therefore, in dealing with the foreign translations. The German edition was a more difficult matter. No German publisher would undertake it, and the only courtesy which we met with in that country was from Baron von Tauchnitz, who included the volume in his well-known English library. Our advances were met with coldness, and occasionally with insult. Here for example is a copy of an extreme specimen of the kind of letter received. January, 1902. Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. Gent, Doyle's book makes the impression as if it was ordered or influenced by the English Jingo party. Now, you know, this English war party (as well as the English officers and soldiers in Transvaal) are contempted by the whole civilized world as coward scoundrels and vile brutes who murder women and children. It would be for me, as an importer of English literature to Germany, Austria and Russia, in the highest degree imprudent to do anything that could awake the suspicion I was in connection with so despised a party. I have shown your letter to several persons. Nobody was inclined to take up the matter. There is a mixture of venom and smugness about this epistle which gives it a high place in our collection. In spite of rebuffs, however, we found an Anglo-German publishing house in Berlin to undertake the work, and with the assistance of Herr Curt von Musgrave, who gave us an excellent translation, we were able to work off more than one very large edition, which had a perceptible effect in modifying the tone of that portion of the German press which was open to reason. Altogether 20,000 copies were distributed in the Fatherland and German-speaking Austria. I remember one whimsical incident at this time. Somewhat tired, after the book was in the press, I went down to Seaford for a rest. While there, a mes |