191 1 ] Kitchener's Early History 357 



without that necessity, and have been looking all along for a com- 

 promise, but the extremists on both sides will have none of it, and now 

 George says the country is in revolt, meaning the Tories in the con- 

 stituencies. ' If we had given in without a fight there would have 

 been an end of the Tory Party.' George thinks they have saved that 

 at least. They are ready for actual armed resistance, or rather, they 

 would like that. They have chosen old Halsbury for their nominal 

 leader because of his great age (eighty-eight), otherwise there would 

 have been jealousies. All the best men of their party are with them, 

 including Austen Chamberlain, whom they did not expect. The only 

 one who has disappointed them has been George Curzon. ' He is a 

 fool,' said George, ' for he might have been next Prime Minister.' 

 However, I am to hear all as soon as the crisis is over. George thinks 

 war with Germany quite possible, and he wants it. 



" 26th July. — To Shaw's new play, ' Fanny's First Play,' last night, 

 at The Little Theatre, with Meynell and Miss Montgomerie, an Ameri- 

 can beauty. The play was screamingly amusing, and I laughed till 

 the tears ran down my cheeks. Mrs. Granville Barker, who was act- 

 ing the principal character, sent me a message when it was over, and 

 I went into her room and congratulated her, which I was glad to do, 

 as she had heard that I did not like her in ' The Witch.' 



" To Lady C., who tells me Kitchener called on her yesterday, and 

 quite contrary to his custom, spoke in high terms of me. This seems 

 to show that he is trying to play the diplomat, and wants to conciliate 

 his enemies, for he knows that I am a friend of hers and that she will 

 repeat it. I asked her what he had told her about his mission to Egypt, 

 and she said, ' Oh, he did not want to go there, he wanted to stay at 

 the War Office, and says he is getting old and Egypt will be his last 

 post, but he is to organize everything, the army and all, and make a big 

 thing of it.' She tells me that she knew Kitchener when he was quite 

 a young man. ' I knew Horatio,' she said, ' forty years ago, when 

 he had just left the French Army. He was in a very poor way then, 

 so low that he had accepted an offer from Toole to go on the stage at 

 £2 a week. Talking about his never having married, she said, ' he 

 had no time to trouble himself with ladies.' He wouldn't marry be- 

 cause he was determined to succeed in his profession, and he could 

 not drag a wife about after him, and he had to be careful not to make 

 scandals because of his men. I told her that I was afraid I should 

 have to bring up the Mahdi's Head against him, and, in fact, I had 

 just been writing as strong an article as I could find words for about 

 it, this very morning, for our next number of ' Egypt.' 



" I forgot to say that talking to George yesterday, he told me that 

 once in talking to the late King about Ireland when he was Chief 

 Secretary, the King had said : ' We must either govern Ireland like 



