this passion of indignation against germany in which peter enlisted was the prevailing mood of england during the opening months of the war. the popular mind had seized upon the idea that europe had been at peace and might have remained at peace indefinitely if it had not been for the high-handed behaviour, first of austria with serbia, and then of germany with russia. the belief that on the whole germany had prepared for and sought this war was no doubt correct, and the spirit of the whole nation rose high and fine to the challenge. but that did not so completely 450exhaust the moral factors in the case as most english people, including peter, supposed at that time.
neither peter nor joan, although they were members of the best educated class in the community and had been given the best education available for that class, had any but the vaguest knowledge of what was going on in the political world. they knew practically nothing of what a modern imperial system consisted, had but the vaguest ideas of the rôle of foreign office, press and parliament in international affairs, were absolutely ignorant of the direction of the army and navy, knew nothing of the history of germany or russia during the previous half-century, or the united states since the declaration of independence, had no inklings of the elements of european ethnology, and had scarcely ever heard such words, for example, as slovene, or slovak, or ukrainian. the items of foreign intelligence in the newspapers joined on to no living historical conceptions in their minds. between the latest history they had read and the things that happened about them and in which they were now helplessly involved, was a gap of a hundred years or more; the profound changes in human life and political conditions brought about during that hundred years by railways, telegraphs, steam shipping, steel castings and the like, were all beyond the scope of their ideas. for joan history meant stories about joan of arc, jane shore, the wives of henry the eighth, james i. and his steenie, charles the second, and suchlike people, winding up with the memoirs of madame d’arblay; peter had ended his historical studies when he went on to the modern side at caxton—it would have made little difference so far as modern affairs were concerned if he had taken a degree in history—and was chiefly conversant with such things as the pedigree of the electress sophia of hanover, the constitutions of clarendon, the statute of mortmain, and the claims of edward the third and henry the fifth to the crown of france. neither of them knew anything at all of india except by way of kipling’s stories and the coronation durbar pictures. if the two of them had rather clearer ideas than most of their associates about the recent opening up and partition of africa 451it was because oswald had talked about those things. but the jostling for empire that had been going on for the past fifty years all over the world, and the succession of imperialist theories from disraeli to joseph chamberlain and from bismarck to treitschke, had no place in their thoughts. the entente cordiale was a phrase of no particular significance to them. the state in which they lived had never explained to them in any way its relations to them nor its fears and aims in regard to the world about it. it is doubtful, indeed, if the state in which they lived possessed the mentality to explain as much even to itself.
how far the best education in america or germany or any other country was better, it is not for us to discuss here, nor how much better education might be. this is the story of the minds of joan and peter and of how that vast system of things hidden, things unanalysed and things misrepresented and obscured, the political system of the european “empires” burst out into war about them. the sprawling, clumsy, heedless british state, which had troubled so little about taking peter into its confidence, displayed now no hesitation whatever in beckoning him home to come and learn as speedily as possible how to die for it.
the tragedy of youth in the great war was a universal tragedy, and if the german youths who were now, less freely and more systematically, beating peter by weeks and months in a universal race into uniform, were more instructed than he, they were also far more thoroughly misinformed. if peter took hold of the war by the one elemental fact that belgium had been invaded most abominably and peaceful villagers murdered in their own fields, the young germans on the other hand had been trained to a whole system of false interpretations. they were assured that they fought to break up a ring of threatening enemies. and that the whole thing was going to be the most magnificent adventure in history. their minds had been prepared elaborately and persistently for this heroic struggle—in which they were to win easily. they had been made to believe themselves a race of blond aristocrats above all the rest of mankind, entitled by their moral and mental worth to world dominion. they 452believed that now they did but come to their own. they had been taught all these things from childhood; how could they help but believe them?
peter arrived, tired and dirty, at pelham ford in the early afternoon. oswald and joan were out, but he bathed and changed while mrs. moxton got him a belated lunch. as he finished this joan came into the dining-room from a walk.
“hullo, petah,” she said, with no display of affection.
“hullo, joan.”
“we thought you were never coming.”
“i was in italy,” said peter.
“h’m,” said joan, and seemed to reckon in her mind.
“nobby is in london,” she said. “he thinks he might help about east africa. it’s his country practically.... are you going to enlist?”
“what else?” said peter, tapping a cigarette on the table. “it’s a beastly bore.”
“bunny’s gone,” said joan. “and wilmington.”
“they’ve written?”
“willy came to see me.”
“heard from any of the others?”
“oh!... troop.”
“enlisted?”
“cadet.”
“any one else?”
“no,” said joan, and hovered whistling faintly for a moment and then walked out of the room....
she had been counting the hours for four days, perplexed by his delay; his coming had seemed the greatest event in the world, for she had never doubted he would come back to serve, and now that he had come she met him like this!
