CHAPTER XXX.
Mr.Mervin Brown was at his best in the interview to which he had, as a matter of fact, been looking forward with much trepidation.

He received Prince Shan courteously and reproached him for not having paid him an earlier visit.

To the latter's request that Nigel might be permitted to be present at the discussion, he promptly acquiesced.
"Lord Dorminster and I have already had some conversation," he said, "bearing upon the matter about which I desire to talk to you." "I have found his lordship," Prince Shan declared, "one of the few Englishmen who has any real apprehension of the trend of events outside his own country." The Prime Minister plunged at once into the middle of things.
"Our national faults are without doubt known to you, Prince Shan," he said.

"They include, amongst other things, an over-confidence in the promises of others; too great belief, I fear, in the probity of our friends.

We paid a staggering price in 1914 for those qualities.