ontents of the book itself.
But all the same, they believed it--after a fashion.

'But puttin' all jokes aside,' said Philpot, 'I can't believe there's
sich a place as 'ell. There may be some kind of punishment, but I
don't believe it's a real fire.'

'Nor nobody else, what's got any sense,' replied Harlow, contemptuously.

'I believe as THIS world is 'ell,' said Crass, looking around with a
philosophic expression. This opinion was echoed by most of the others,
although Slyme remained silent and Owen laughed.

'Wot the bloody 'ell are YOU laughin' at?' Crass demanded in an
indignant tone.

'I was laughing because you said you think this world is hell.'

'Well, I don't see nothing to laugh at in that,' said Crass.

'So it IS a 'ell,' said Easton. 'There can't be anywheres much worse
than this.'

''Ear, 'ear,' said the man behind the moat.

'What I was laughing at is this,' said Owen. 'The present system of
managing the affairs of the world is so bad and has produced such
dreadful results that you are of the opinion that the earth is a hell:
and yet you are a Conservative! You wish to preserve the present
system--the system which has made the world into a hell!'

'I thought we shouldn't get through the dinner hour without politics if
Owen was 'ere,' growled Bundy. 'Bloody sickenin' I call it.'

'Don't be 'ard on 'im,' said Philpot. ''E's been very quiet for the
last few days.'

'We'll 'ave to go through it today, though,' remarked Harlow
despairingly. 'I can see it comin'.'

'I'M not goin' through it,' said Bundy, 'I'm orf!' And he accordingly
drank the remainder of his tea, closed his empty dinner basket and,
having placed it on the mantelshelf, made for the door.

'I'll leave you to it,' he said as he went out. The others laughed.

Crass, remembering the cutting from the Obscurer that he had in his
pocket, was secretly very pleased at the turn the conversation was
taking. He turned roughly on Owen:

'The other day, when we was talkin' about the cause of poverty, you
contradicted everybody. Everyone else was wrong! But you yourself
couldn't tell us what's the cause of poverty, could you?'

'I think I could.'

'Oh, of course, you think you know,' sneered Crass, 'and of course you
think your opinion's right and everybody else's is wrong.'

'Yes,' replied Owen.

Several men expressed their abhorrence of this intolerant attitude of
Owen's, but the latter rejoined:

'Of course I think t