“I can only say what I think. And perhaps it means trying to define what a liberal is—that word which you so despise, Grace. It seems to me that the true liberal is capable of change, is not rigid, grows in fact. What you see as compromise, I see as recognition. Since the last war, there has been a rather subtle shift toward what I might call enlightened conservatism.”

“Compromise—fatal compromise and cowardice,” Grace answered quickly.

“That is how Edward saw it, of course. For so many years the extreme Right—in Spain, in Italy, in Germany—has been the enemy. Now we are facing an enemy from the Left. You see, Isabel, all our loyalties and faith have been bound up with the Left. This shift makes deep psychological wounds—we have to admit things that we do not want to admit. We have to draw up new frontiers. This is what is happening now and it is not done without pain.”

“I call it ratting,” Grace Kimlock sat, straight as a ramrod, her eyes flashing.

“For some of us,” Julia went on imperturbably, “the failure of the Czechoslovakian Socialists to hold out against communism was the final illuminating thing.”

“Edward felt strongly about that, didn’t he?” Isabel at least could fasten onto this fact in the midst of a great deal that was simply bewildering. It was all so queerly religious and intense, that was what bothered her. At home people just voted whatever party they were for and then that was that. You didn’t lie awake at night, fighting with your conscience.

“After all, he had been in Prague for a year. Presumably he knew something about it,” Grace said.

Mercifully perhaps, they heard Fosca’s voice in the hall, as Damon and he came back to join the ladies. “It’s not going to be easy, in any case, you may be sure of that.” But Damon had already rushed on past him mentally into the next room. “No, no, of course not,” he murmured. “Well, you look very cozy in here, I must say. Orlando and I nearly froze to death in there. It’s high time we got the furnace going, Julia. Nice fire,” he said, standing before it, rubbing his hands. Professor Fosca sat down on the sofa beside Grace, his eyes very bright.