were slightly bent, as if in disapproval, and my own temper began
to rise.

He had every kind of idiotic criticism - incompetence, faint-
heartedness, corruption. Where he got the stuff I can't imagine,
for the most grousing Tommy, with his leave stopped, never put
together such balderdash. Worst of all he asked me to agree with him.

It took all my sense of discipline. 'I don't know much about the
subject,' I said, 'but out in South Africa I did hear that the British
leading was the weak point. I expect there's a good deal in what
you say.'

It may have been fancy, but the girl at my side seemed to
whisper 'Well done!'

Wake and I did not remain long behind before joining the ladies;
I purposely cut it short, for I was in mortal fear lest I should lose
my temper and spoil everything. I stood up with my back against
the mantelpiece for as long as a man may smoke a cigarette, and I
let him yarn to me, while I looked steadily at his face. By this time I
was very clear that Wake was not the fellow to give me my instructions.
He wasn't playing a game. He was a perfectly honest crank, but
not a fanatic, for he wasn't sure of himself. He had somehow
lost his self-respect and was trying to argue himself back into it. He
had considerable brains, for the reasons he gave for differing from
most of his countrymen were good so far as they went. I shouldn't
have cared to take him on in public argument. If you had told me
about such a fellow a week before I should have been sick at the
thought of him. But now I didn't dislike him. I was bored by him