peace, and shall be subject to its command in
war. The rich shall warrant the poor against planless production and
the ruin that now follows, against danger from without and famine from
within, and the poor--"

"No, no, no!" shouted Lindau. "The State shall do that--the whole
beople. The men who voark shall have and shall eat; and the men that
will not voark, they shall sdarfe. But no man need sdarfe. He will go
to the State, and the State will see that he haf voark, and that he
haf foodt. All the roadts and mills and mines and landts shall be the
beople's and be ron by the beople for the beople. There shall be no rich
and no boor; and there shall not be war any more, for what bower wouldt
dare to addack a beople bound togeder in a broderhood like that?"

"Lion and lamb act," said Fulkerson, not well knowing, after so much
champagne, what words he was using.

No one noticed him, and Colonel Woodburn said coldly to Lindau, "You are
talking paternalism, sir."

"And you are dalking feutalism!" retorted the old man.

The colonel did not reply. A silence ensued, which no one broke
till Fulkerson said: "Well, now, look here. If either one of these
millenniums was brought about, by force of arms, or otherwise, what
would become of 'Every Other Week'? Who would want March for an editor?
How would Beaton sell his pictures? Who would print Mr. Kendricks's
little society verses and short stories? What would become of Conrad
and his good works?" Those named grinned in support of Fulkerson's
diversion, but Lindau and the colonel did not speak; Dryfoos looked down
at his plate, frowning.

A waiter came round with cigars, and Fulkerson took one. "Ah," he said,
as he bit off the end, and leaned over to the emblematic masterpiece,
where the brandy was still feebly flickering, "I wonder if there's
enough natural gas left to light my cigar." His effort put the flame
out and knocked the derrick over; it broke in fragments on the table.
Fulkerson cackled over the ruin: "I wonder if all Moffitt will look that
way after labor and capital have fought it out together. I hope this
ain't ominous of anything personal, Dryfoos?"

"I'll take the risk of it," said the old man, harshly.

He rose mechanically, and Fulkerson said to Frescobaldi's man, "You can
bring us the coffee in the library."

The talk did not recover itself there. Landau would not sit down; he
refused coffee, and dismissed himself with a haughty bow to the company;
Colon