a self-supporting settlement of people
who ate no meat, drank no alcohol, smoked no tobacco; a community
which, as years went on, might prove to the world that there was the
true ideal of civilised life--health of mind and of body, true culture,
true humanity!'" The eyes glowed in his fleshless, colourless face; he
spoke with arm raised, head thrown back--the attitude of an
enthusiastic preacher. "Milligan caught at the idea--caught at it
eagerly. 'There's something fine in that!' he said. 'Why shouldn't it
be done?' 'You're the man that could do it,' I told him. 'You'd be a
benefactor to the human race. Isolated examples are all very well, but
what we want is an experiment on a large scale, going on through more
than one generation. Let children be born of vegetarian parents,
brought up as vegetarians, and this in conditions of life every way
simple, natural, healthy. This is the way to convert the world.' So
that's what we're working at now, Milligan and I. Of course there are
endless difficulties; the thing can't be begun in a hurry; we have to
see no end of people, and correspond with the leaders of vegetarianism
everywhere. But isn't it a grand idea? Isn't it worth working for?"

Warburton mused, smiling.

"I want you to join us," said Sherwood abruptly.

"Ho, ho! That's another matter."

"I shall bring you books to read."

"I've no time. I'm a grocer."

"Pooh!" exclaimed Sherwood. "In a few days you'll be an independent
man.--Yes, yes, I know that you'll have only a small capital, when
things are settled; but it's just people with a small capital that we
want to enlist; the very poor and the well-to-do will be no use to us.
It's too late to-night to go into details. We have time to talk, plenty
of time. That you will join us, I feel sure. Wait till you've had time
to think about it. For my own part, I've found the work of my life, and
I'm the happiest man living!"

He walked round and round the table, waving his arms, and Warburton,
after regarding him curiously, mused again, but without a smile.

CHAPTER 31

Behind his counter next morning, Will thought over Sherwood's story,
and laughed to himself wonderingly. Not that any freak of his old
partner's--of the man whom he had once regarded as, above all,
practical and energetic--could now surprise him; but it seemed
astonishing that Godfrey should have persuaded a man of solid means,
even a Celt, to pledge himself to such an enterprise Was the s