nough to get along with."

"But on what do you base such a very unwarrantable belief?"

"I just feel like that."

"And if you are ever quite without success--and nothing to fall back
on?"

"I can work at something."

"In case of illness, for example?"

"I can go to a hospital--or die."

"Dear me! However, you are more logical than Lilly. He seems to believe
that he has the Invisible--call it Providence if you will--on his side,
and that this Invisible will never leave him in the lurch, or let him
down, so long as he sticks to his own side of the bargain, and NEVER
works for his own ends. I don't quite see how he works. Certainly he
seems to me a man who squanders a great deal of talent unworthily. Yet
for some reason or other he calls this true, genuine activity, and has
a contempt for actual work by which a man makes provision for his years
and for his family. In the end, he will have to fall back on charity.
But when I say so, he denies it, and says that in the end we, the men
who work and make provision, will have to fall back on him. Well, all
I can say is, that SO FAR he is in far greater danger of having to fall
back on me, than I on him."

The old man sat back in his chair with a little laugh of triumph. But it
smote almost devilishly on Aaron's ears, and for the first time in his
life he felt that there existed a necessity for taking sides.

"I don't suppose he will do much falling back," he said.

"Well, he is young yet. You are both young. You are squandering your
youth. I am an old man, and I see the end."

"What end, Sir William?"

"Charity--and poverty--and some not very congenial 'job,' as you call
it, to put bread in your mouth. No, no, I would not like to trust myself
to your Providence, or to your Chance. Though I admit your Chance is
a sounder proposition than Lilly's Providence. You speculate with your
life and your talent. I admit the nature which is a born speculator.
After all, with your flute, you will speculate in other people's taste
for luxury, as a man may speculate in theatres or _trains de luxe_. You
are the speculator. That may be your way of wisdom. But Lilly does not
even speculate. I cannot see his point. I cannot see his point. I cannot
see his point. Yet I have the greatest admiration for his mentality."

The old man had fired up during this conversation--and all the others
in the room had gone silent. Lady Franks was palpably uneasy. She alone
knew how frail the old ma