by his published
writings," said Trefusis. "Three of the pamphlets on that shelf contain
quotations from 'The Patriot Martyrs.'"

Erskine blushed, flattered by being quoted; an attention that had been
shown him only once before, and then by a reviewer with the object of
proving that the Patriot Martyrs were slovenly in their grammar.

"Come!" said Trefusis. "Shall I write to Donovan Brown that his letters
have gained the cordial assent and sympathy of Sir Charles Brandon?"

"Certainly, certainly. That is, if my unknown name would be of the least
interest to him."

"Good," said Trefusis, filling his glass with water. "Erskine, let us
drink to our brother Social Democrat."

Erskine laughed loudly, but not heartily. "What an ass you are,
Brandon!" he said. "You, with a large landed estate, and bags of gold
invested in railways, calling yourself a Social Democrat! Are you going
to sell out and distribute--to sell all that thou hast and give to the
poor?"

"Not a penny," replied Trefusis for him promptly. "A man cannot be a
Christian in this country. I have tried it and found it impossible both
in law and in fact. I am a capitalist and a landholder. I have railway
shares, mining shares, building shares, bank shares, and stock of most
kinds; and a great trouble they are to me. But these shares do not
represent wealth actually in existence; they are a mortgage on the labor
of unborn generations of laborers, who must work to keep me and mine in
idleness and luxury. If I sold them, would the mortgage be cancelled and
the unborn generations released from its thrall? No. It would only pass
into the hands of some other capitalist, and the working class would be
no better off for my self-sacrifice. Sir Charles cannot obey the command
of Christ; I defy him to do it. Let him give his land for a public park;
only the richer classes will have leisure to enjoy it. Plant it at the
very doors of the poor, so that they may at last breathe its air, and it
will raise the value of the neighboring houses and drive the poor away.
Let him endow a school for the poor, like Eton or Christ's Hospital,
and the rich will take it for their own children as they do in the
two instances I have named. Sir Charles does not want to minister to
poverty, but to abolish it. No matter how much you give to the poor,
everything except a bare subsistence wage will be taken from them again
by force. All talk of practicing Christianity, or even bare justice, i