ot have decided whether it was assumed or genuine, "what
earthly right have you to suppose that I'm like all the rest?"

"I'm very sorry," she surrendered. "I knew all the time you weren't."
With her face still bent downwards, she looked up at him, smiling sadly,
smiling roguishly.

"Father's against them," he proceeded, somewhat deflated. And he
thought of all his father's violent invective, and of Maggie's bland
acceptance of the assumption that workmen on strike were rascals--how
different the excellent simple Maggie from this feverish creature on the
sofa! "Father's against them, and most people are, because they broke
the last arbitration award. But I'm not my father. If you ask me, I'll
tell you what I think--workmen on strike are always in the right; at
bottom I mean. You've only got to look at them in a crowd together.
They don't starve themselves for fun."

He was not sure if he was convinced of the truth of these statements;
but she drew them out of him by her strange power. And when he had
uttered them, they appeared fine to him.

"What does your father say to that?"

"Oh!" said Edwin uneasily. "Him--and me--we don't argue about these
things."

"Why not?"

"Well, we don't."

"You aren't ashamed of your own opinions, are you?" she demanded, with a
hint in her voice that she was ready to be scornful.

"You know all the time I'm not." He repeated the phrase of her previous
confession with a certain acrimonious emphasis. "Don't you?" he added
curtly.

She remained silent.

"Don't you?" he said more loudly. And as she offered no reply, he went
on, marvelling at what was coming out of his mouth. "I'll tell you what
I am ashamed of. I'm ashamed of seeing my father lose his temper. So
you know!"

She said--

"I never met anybody like you before. No, never!"

At this he really was astounded, and most exquisitely flattered.

"I might say the same of you," he replied, sticking his chin out.

"Oh no!" she said. "I'm nothing."

The fact was that he could not foretell their conversation even ten
seconds in advance. It was full of the completely unexpected. He
thought to himself, "You never know what a girl like that will say
next." But what would he say next?

------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIVE.

They were interrupted by Osmond Orgreave, with his, "Well, Edwin,"
jolly, welcoming, and yet slightly quizzical. Edwin could not look him