"Oh, dear!" exclaimed the would-be
like that?"
VII
Lanny was interested in the point of view of these official persons, and sat in the splendid
library of his wife's rented home and listened to Rick discussing the Nazi movement with
Wickthorpe and his secretary, Reggie Catledge, who was also his cousin. It was a point of view
in no way novel to Lanny, his father having explained it when he was a very small boy. The
governing classes of Britain made it a fixed policy never to permit one nation to become
strong enough to dominate the Continent; regardless of which nation it might be, they would
set themselves the task of raising some rival as a counterweight.
Wickthorpe disliked the Nazis and what they were doing, but he didn't rave at them; he just
said they were a set of bounders. He took it for granted that their fantastic promises had been
made as a means of getting power. "Just politics," he said, and refused to be disturbed by the
possibility that the bounders might mean what they said. The two Englishmen listened with
interest to what Lanny had to tell about his meeting with Hitler, and asked him some
questions, but at the end they were of the same opinion still.
"We've had so many wild men in our public life," said his lordship. "You and I are too young
to remember how old John Burns used to rave in his speeches at Trafalgar Square, but my
parents got up slumming parties to go and listen. Long afterward you could meet the old boy
in the New Reform Club and hear him talk about it—in fact you could hardly get him to talk
about anything else."
"He was a very strict teetotaler, but his face was as red as a turkey- cock's wattles," added
Catledge.
"Hitler doesn't drink, either," said Lanny; but the others didn't appear to attach any
importance to that.
They went on to point out to Rick that the French imperialists were arrogant, and their
diplomats had made a lot of trouble in Syria, Iraq, and other places. French bankers had a
great store of gold, and made use of it in ways inconvenient to their rivals. Wickthorpe didn't
say that Hitler would serve to keep the French occupied, but his arguments made plain the
general idea that you couldn't entrust any one set of foreigners with too much power. It was
even possible to guess that he wasn't too heartbroken over what had happened in Wall Street
during the past four years; because a large part of Britain's prosperity depended upon her
service as clearinghouse for international transactions, and it had been highly embarrassing to
have the dollar prove more stable than the pound.
Wickthorpe and his cousin had it comfortably figured out what to be Hitler's role in world
affairs. Assuming that he was able to continue in power, he was going to fight Russia. He was
the logical one to do this, because of his geographical position; for Britain this factor made it
almost impossible. Lanny wanted to ask: "Why does anybody have to fight Russia?"—but he was
afraid that would be an improper question.
Here sat this tall young lord, smooth-skinned, pink-cheeked, with his fair hair and little toy
mustache; perfectly groomed, perfectly at ease; one couldn't say perfectly educated, for there
were many important things about which he knew nothing—science, for example, and the
economics of reality as opposed to those of classical theory. He knew ancient Greek and
Roman civilization, and Hebrew theology made over by the Church of England; he had recent
world affairs at his fingertips. He possessed perfect poise, charm of manner, and skill in keeping to
himself those thoughts which particular persons had no right to share. He was sure that he
was a gentleman and a Christian, yet he took it for granted that it was his duty to labor and
plan to bring about one of the most cruel and bloody of wars.
"You know, you might do quite a spot of trade with the Soviet Union," suggested Lanny,
mildly. "They have the raw materials and you have the machines."
"Yes, Budd, but one can't think merely about business; there are moral factors."
"But might not the Reds be toned down and acquire a sense of responsibility, just as well as
the Nazis?"
"We can't trust the blighters."
"I'm told that they meet their bills regularly. The Chase National gets along with them quite
well."
"I don't mean financially, I mean politically. They would start breaking into the Balkans, or
India, or China; their agents are trying to stir up revolution all the time."
Lanny persisted. "Have you thought of the possibility that if you won't trade with them, the
Nazis may? Their economies supplement each other."
"But their ideologies are at opposite poles!"
"They seem to be; but you yourself say how ideologies change when men get power. It seems
to me that Stalin and Hitler are self-made men, and might be able to understand each other.
Suppose one day Stalin should say to Hitler, or Hitler to Stalin: 'See here, old top, the British
have got it fixed up for us to ruin ourselves fighting. Why should we oblige them?'"
