He grinned at Eileen in a whimsical way, and I could see that between this little American and that Irish girl there was an understanding comradeship.
So he told me when she left the room a minute to get another tea-cup or wash one up.
"That girl!" he said. "Say, laddie, you couldn't find a better head in all Europe, including Hoover himself. She's a Napoleon Bonaparte without his blood-lust. She's Horatio Nelson and Lord Northcliffe and Nurse Cavell all rolled into one, to produce the organising genius of Eileen O'Connor. Only you would have to add a few saints like Catherine of Sienna and Joan of Arc to allow for her spirituality. She organises feeding-centres like you would write a column article. She gets the confidence of Austrian women so that they would kiss her feet if she'd allow it. She has a head for figures that fairly puts me to shame, and as for her courage--well, I don't mind telling you that I've sworn to pack her back to England if she doesn't keep clear of typhus dens and other fever-stricken places. We can't afford to lose her by some dirty bug-bite."
Eileen came into the room again with another tea-cup and saucer. I counted those on the table and saw three already.
"Who is the other cup for?" I asked. "If you are expecting visitors I'll go, because I'm badly in need of a wash."
"Don't worry," said Eileen. "We haven't time to wash in Vienna, and, anyhow, there's no soap, for love or money. This is for Wickham, who is no visitor but one of the staff."
"Rather!" said "Daddy" Small. "He has been here a week and is doing good work. Looks after the supplies, and puts his heart into the job."
As he spoke the door opened and Brand strode into the room, with rain dripping from his waterproof coat which he took off and flung into a corner before he turned to the table.
"And what you shall have, my dear," said Eileen.
"But don't you know a friend when you see him?"
He held my hand in a hard grip and patted me on the shoulder. Our friendship was beyond the need of words.
So there we three, who had seen many strange and tragic things in those years of history, were together again in the city of Vienna, the city of death, where the innocent were paying for the guilty, but where also, as "Daddy" Small said, there was going out a call to charity which was being heard by the heart of the world above the old war-cries of cruelty.