But he
just couldn't do it. I put it for him that he was but the powerless and
insignificant agent of an authority greater than himself.
To that he said "Yes, and No," always, I think, a safe answer. True, he had
his duty to perform, and right well he performed it, we agreed. But he had
also his powers, his responsibilities--might we say, his scope? Yet, I
gathered, there were things which, not being entirely master of himself and
his affairs, he could not do. Take my own case, for example. I suggested
(very cautiously) that it would require a very much greater authority than
himself to give relief to an ordinary person like myself, with no stronger
reason to travel by the civilian boat than that my whole financial future
and domestic happiness depended upon my doing so. He said nothing to that;
I gave him but a very little chance. I said that I knew quite well that he
would help me if he could. We were unanimous as to the kindness of his
heart. It was because I quite realized that he couldn't that I didn't ask
him or think of asking him. Very soon after that we parted, I to sail for
England--but not by the leave boat.
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