Miss Tolley appeared to be getting muddled. “Whose boy?” she demanded. “I did go over it,” he answered. “But it would be rather absurd for just Mary and me.”!

“What are you making?” asked Joan. The girl shook her head. “There’s no next time,” she said; “once you’re put down as one of the stand-offs. Plenty of others to take your place.”

“You don’t mean a party?” asked Joan. He struck a match and held it for her. Joan sat with her elbows on the table and smoked in silence. She was thinking. “The great International Peace Congress at Paris,” explained Mrs. Denton; “just after the Crimean war. It made quite a stir at the time. The Emperor opened our proceedings in person, and the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury both sent us their blessing. We had a copy of the speeches presented to us on leaving, in every known language in Europe, bound in vellum. I’m hoping to find it. And the Press was enthusiastic. There were to be Acts of Parliament, Courts of Arbitration, International Laws, Diplomatic Treaties. A Sub-Committee was appointed to prepare a special set of prayers and a Palace of Peace was to be erected. There was only one thing we forgot, and that was the foundation.”