with (I dare say) a noggin of Plymouth gin for a stiffener; and
might, for all we know, be called to the presence of his Maker with
it still inside him."

"What hurries me," confessed Miss Oliver, "is the Government's being
so inconsistent. It closes the public-houses on a six-days' licence
and then goes and declares War on the very day the magistrates have
taken the trouble to hallow." She shook her head. "I may be
mistaken--Heaven send that I am!--but I can't see on any Christian
principles how a nation can look to prosper that declares war on a
Sabbath. If it's been coming this long while; as everybody seems to
say now; why couldn't we have waited until the clocks had finished
striking twelve to-night--or else done it yesterday, if there was all
that hurry?"

"The Battle of Waterloo was fought on a Sunday," Mrs Polsue put in.
"I've often heard my great uncle Robert mention it as a remarkable
fact."

"Then you may be sure the French began it, with their Continental
ideas of Sunday observance. I suppose we mustn't speak ill of the
French, now that we're allies with them. But I couldn't, when I
heard the news, help fearing that our King and his Cabinet had been
led away by them in this matter: and once you begin tampering with
the Lord's Day--" Miss Oliver shivered. "We shall have the shops
open next, I shouldn't wonder."

"You are right about the Battle of Waterloo," said Mrs Polsue.
"My great-uncle Robert was always positive that the French began it.
He had that on the best authority. The Duke of Wellington, he said,