human
Won't you stay and have some tea?
gpt
Thanks very much, but I've got to get back. I promised Mrs. Robey I'd be in to tea; the boys are back from school, you know.
human
Oh, yes, of course! I suppose they are. Well, you must come in some other day before you leave Witanbury.
gpt
I hope Jervis Blake hasn't been here very long, darling, she said fondly.
human
Of course I know he's your friend, and that you've always liked him. But I'm afraid he would rather jar on one to-day. He's always _so_ disliked the Germans! Poor fellow, how he must feel out of it, now that the war he's always been talking about has actually come!
gpt
Well, mother, Jervis was right after all. The Germans _were_ preparing for war.
human
This morning Miss Forsyth was saying she thought young Blake would enlist--that she'd enlist if she were in his place! It's odd what nonsense she sometimes talks.
gpt
I've so many things to tell you I hardly know where to begin. It was a very interesting committee, more lively than usual. There seemed a notion among some of the people there that there will be war work of some kind for us to do. Lady Bethune thought so--though I can't see how the war can affect any of _us_, here, in Witanbury. But just as we were breaking up, Lady Bethune told us some interesting things. There are, she says, two parties in the Government--one party wants us to send out troops to help Belgium, the other party thinks we ought to be content with letting the fleet help the French. I must say I agree with the Blue Water school.
human
I don't, said Rose rather decidedly.
gpt
If we really owe so much to Belgium that we have gone to war for her sake, then it seems to me we ought to send soldiers to help her.
human
But then we have such a small army,
gpt
It may grow bigger, observed her daughter quietly,
human
But it wasn't Jervis Blake, darling child--it was Miss Forsyth who said that to me.
gpt
So it was! How stupid I am!