to pass out of the family. Money was the fruit of self-denial, and the
second generation had a right to profit by the self-denial of the first.
What right had "Mr. Bast" to profit? The National Gallery was good
enough for the likes of him. After property had had its say--a saying
that is necessarily ungracious--the various philanthropists stepped
forward. Something must be done for "Mr. Bast"; his conditions must
be improved without impairing his independence; he must have a free
library, or free tennis-courts; his rent must be paid in such a way that
he did not know it was being paid; it must be made worth his while to
join the Territorials; he must be forcibly parted from his uninspiring
wife, the money going to her as compensation; he must be assigned a
Twin Star, some member of the leisured classes who would watch over him
ceaselessly (groans from Helen); he must be given food but no clothes,
clothes but no food, a third-return ticket to Venice, without either
food or clothes when he arrived there. In short, he might be given
anything and everything so long as it was not the money itself.

And here Margaret interrupted.

"Order, order, Miss Schlegel!" said the reader of the paper. "You are
here, I understand, to advise me in the interests of the Society for the
Preservation of Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. I cannot
have you speaking out of your role. It makes my poor head go round, and
I think you forget that I am very ill."

"Your head won't go round if only you'll listen to my argument," said
Margaret. "Why not give him the money itself? You're supposed to have
about thirty thousand a year."

"Have I? I thought I had a million."

"Wasn't a million your capital? Dear me! we ought to have settled that.
Still, it doesn't matter. Whatever you've got, I order you to give as
many poor men as you can three hundred a year each."

"But that would be pauperising them," said an earnest girl, who liked
the Schlegels, but thought them a little unspiritual at times.

"Not if you gave them so much. A big windfall would not pauperise a man.
It is these little driblets, distributed among too many, that do the
harm. Money's educational. It's far more educational than the things
it buys." There was a protest. "In a sense," added Margaret, but the
protest continued. "Well, isn't the most civilized thing going, the man
who has learnt to wear his income properly?"

"Exactly what your Mr. Basts won't do."

"