"If looks could kill!" cried Lady Frensham with tremendous gusto.
"Sir Edward is quite firm that Ulster means to fight. They have machine-guns--ammunition. And I am sure the army is with us...."
"Where did they get those machine-guns and ammunition?" asked Mr. Britling suddenly.
"Ah! that's a secret," cried Lady Frensham.
"You see," said Lady Frensham; "it _will_ be civil war! And yet you writing people who have influence do nothing to prevent it!"
"You mean, tell the Irish Nationalists to lie down and be walked over. They won't be...."
"We'll see about that," cried Lady Frensham, "we'll see about that!"
She was a large and dignified person with a kind of figure-head nobility of carriage, but Mr. Direck was suddenly reminded of a girl cousin of his who had been expelled from college for some particularly elaborate and aimless rioting....
"May I say something to you, Lady Frensham," said Mr. Britling, "that you have just said to me? Do you realise that this Carsonite campaign is dragging these islands within a measurable distance of civil war?"
"It's the fault of your Lloyd George and his government. It's the fault of your Socialists and sentimentalists. You've made the mischief and you have to deal with it."
"Yes. But do you really figure to yourself what a civil war may mean for the empire? Surely there are other things in the world besides this quarrel between the 'loyalists' of Ulster and the Liberal government; there are other interests in this big empire than party advantages? Yon think you are going to frighten this Home Rule government into some ridiculous sort of collapse that will bring in the Tories at the next election. Well, suppose you don't manage that. Suppose instead that you really do contrive to bring about a civil war. Very few people here or in Ireland want it--I was over there not a month ago--but when men have loaded guns in their hands they sometimes go off. And then people see red. Few people realise what an incurable sore opens when fighting begins. Suppose part of the army revolts and we get some extraordinary and demoralising fighting over there. India watches these things. Bengal may imitate Ireland. At that distance rebellion and treason are rebellion and treason whether they are coloured orange or green. And then suppose the Germans see fit to attack us!"