Reichsminister, he had come to Geneva and laid down the law as to Germany's claim to arms
equality. Wickthorpe had been impressed by his forceful personality, and now was amused to
hear about the lion cub from the Berlin zoo and the new gold velvet curtains in the reception
room of the Minister-Präsident's official residence.
Lanny said: "The important thing for you gentlemen to remember is that Göring is an air
commander, and that rearmament for him is going to mean fleets of planes. They will all be new
and of perfected models."
Eric Vivian Pomeroy-Nielson, ex-aviator, had laid great stress upon this, but Lanny found it
impossible to interest a representative of the British Foreign Office. To him airplanes were like
Adolf Hitler; that is to say, something "jumped-up," something cheap, presumptuous, and
altogether bad form. Britannia ruled the waves, and did it with dignified and solid "ships of the
line," weighing thirty-five thousand tons each and costing ten or twenty million pounds. An
American admiral had written about the influence of sea power upon history, and the
British Admiralty had read it, one of the few compliments they had ever paid to their
jumped-up cousins across the seas. Now their world strategy was based upon it, and when
anyone tried to argue with them it was as if they all burst into song: "Britannia needs no
bulwarks, no towers along the steep!"
Irma listened to the discussions, and afterward, as they drove back to London, they talked
about it, and Lanny discovered that she agreed with her host rather than with her husband.
She was irresistibly impressed by the dignity, stability, and self-confidence of this island
nation; also by Lord Wickthorpe as the perfect type of English gentleman and statesman.
Lanny didn't mind, for he was used to having people disagree with him, especially his own
family. But when he happened to mention the matter to his mother, she minded it gravely, and
said: "Doesn't it ever occur to you that you're taking an awful lot for granted?"
"How do you mean, old darling?"
"Take my advice and think seriously about Irma. You're making her a lot unhappier than
you've any idea."
"You mean, by the company I keep?"
"By that, and by the ideas you express to your company, and to your wife's."
"Well, dear, she surely can't expect me to give up my political convictions as the price of her
happiness."
"I don't know why she shouldn't—considering how we're all more or less dependent upon her
bounty."
"Bless your heart!" said Lanny. "I can always go back to selling pictures again."
"Oh, Lanny, you say horrid things!"
He thought that she had started the horridness, but it would do no good to say so. "Cheer up,
old dear—I'm taking my wife off to New York right away."
"Don't count on that too much. Don't ever forget that you've got a treasure, and it calls for
a lot of attention and some guarding."
BOOK FIVE
This Is the Way the World Ends
21
I
IRMA and Lanny guessed that the feelings of Fanny Barnes were going to be hurt because
they weren't bringing her namesake to see her; to make up for it they had cabled that they
would come first to Shore Acres. The Queen Mother was at the steamer to meet them with a
big car. She wanted the news about her darling grandchild, and then, what on earth had they
been doing all that time in Germany? Everybody was full of questions about Hitlerland, they
discovered; at a distance of three thousand miles it sounded like Hollywood, and few could
bring themselves to believe that it was real. The newspapers were determined to find out what
had happened to a leading German-Jewish financier. They met him at the pier, and when he
wouldn't talk they tried everyone who knew him; but in vain.
At Shore Acres, things were going along much as usual. The employees of the estate were
doing the same work for no wages; but with seventeen million unemployed in the country,
they were thankful to be kept alive. As for Irma's friends, they were planning the customary
round of visits to seashore and mountains; those who still had dividends would play host to
those who hadn't, and everybody would get along. There was general agreement that business
was picking up at last, and credit for the boom was given to Roosevelt. Only a few diehards like
Robbie Budd talked about the debts being incurred, and when and how were they going to
be paid. Most people didn't want to pay any debts; they said that was what had got the country
into trouble. The way to get out was to borrow and spend as fast as possible; and one of the
things to spend for was beer. Roosevelt was letting the people buy it instead of having to make
it in their bathtubs.
Robbie came into the city by appointment, and in the office of the Barnes estate, he and Irma
and Lanny sat down to a conference with Uncle Joseph Barnes and the other two trustees.
Robbie had a briefcase full of figures setting forth the condition of Budd Gun makers, a list of
directors pledged to him, the voting shares which he controlled, and those which he could
