s seat. 'You're not indifferent to the hard lives of
the people, as most people are who have always lived comfortable lives?'

She let the branch spring up, and spoke more coldly.

'I hope I am not indifferent; but it is not in my power to do anything.'

'Will you let me say that you are mistaken in that?' Mutimer had never
before felt himself constrained to qualify and adorn his phrases; the
necessity made him awkward. Not only did he aim at polite modes of
speech altogether foreign to his lips, but his own voice sounded strange
to him in its forced suppression. He did not as yet succeed in regarding
himself from the outside and criticising the influences which had got
hold upon him; he was only conscious that a young lady--the very type of
young lady that a little while ago he would have held up for scorn--was
subduing his nature by her mere presence and exacting homage from him
to which she was wholly indifferent. 'Everyone can give help in such a
cause as this. You can work upon the minds of the people you talk with
and get them to throw away their prejudices. The cause of the working
classes seems so hopeless just because they're too far away to catch the
ears of those who oppress them.'

'I do not oppress them, Mr. Mutimer.'

Adela spoke with a touch of impatience. She wished to bring this
conversation to an end, and the man would give her no opportunity of
doing so. She was not in reality paying attention to his arguments, as
was evident in her echo of his last words.

'Not willingly, but none the less you do so,' he rejoined. 'Everyone
who lives at ease and without a thought of changing the present state
of society is tyrannising over the people. Every article of clothing
you put on means a life worn out somewhere in a factory. What would your
existence be without the toil of those men and women who live and die
in want of every comfort which seems as natural to you as the air you
breathe? Don't you feel that you owe them something? It's a debt
that can very easily be forgotten, I know that, and just because the
creditors are too weak to claim it. Think of it in that way, and I'm
quite sure you won't let it slip from your mind again.'

Alfred came towards them, announcing that tea was ready, and Adela
gladly moved away.

'You won't make any impression there,' said Alfred with a shrug of
good-natured contempt. 'Argument isn't understood by women. Now, if you
were a revivalist preacher--' Mrs. Waltham and