... and promising as it seemed to young Leo. The Boer War was in progress and had left its brutal mark on Lord Trimingham's face. His face, compared to Janus', reminds us of the evils which had occurred already before the start of the century. Janus, the god of thresholds stands as a warning of the wars to come. The Boer war is in the background of the story throughout, even in the images used in everyday situations: "...Trying to sneak past in dead ground!" - calls Hugh accusingly when he sports the lurking Leo, and for a moment Leo seems like one of the elusive Boer soldiers. All these allusions to war, topical in 1900, develop a further meaning when connected with the theme of the twentieth century as the opposite of the 'Golden Age' for which Leo hoped. "The past is a foreign country: they do things differently ...

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