over this matter with a couple of seniors, they told me I was supposed
to claim this invasion was mor'ly and legally all right. Well--" Here,
by some chance, the recollection of a word of Dora's flickered into his
chaotic mind, and he had a brighter moment. "My opponent said she proved
all war is wrong--or something like that, anyhow. She said she proved it
was wrong to fight, no matter what. Well, if she wasn't a girl, anybody
that wanted to get her into a fight could prob'ly do it." He did not
add that he would like to be the person to make the experiment (if Dora
weren't a girl), nor did the thought enter his mind until an hour or so
later. "Well," he added, "I suppose there is little more to be said."

He was so right, in regard to his own performance, at least, that,
thereupon drying up utterly, he proceeded to stand, a speechless
figure in the midst of a multitudinous silence, for an eternity lasting
forty-five seconds. He made a racking effort, and at the end of this
epoch found words again. "In making my argument in this debate, I would
state that--"

"Two minutes!" said the chairman. "Refutation by the negative. Miss D.
Yocum. Two minutes."

"I waive them," said Dora, primly. "I submit that the affirmative has
not refuted the argument of the negative."

"Very well." With his gavel the chairman sharply tapped the desk before
him, "The question is now before the house. 'Resolved, that Germany
is both morally and legally justified in her invasion of Belgium.' All
those in favour of the--"

But here there was an interruption of a kind never before witnessed