r a night's
lodging?"

"Without a doubt," he answered. "And yet, I expect you'll do it.
Principles are splendid--in the abnegation. If we are to be illogical,
let me be the breaker of my own laws."

He thrust some money into her hand and Julia disappeared. For some time
she remained talking with the figure upon the seat. Aaron and Maraton
leaned over the corner of the bridge and looked down the curving arc of
lights towards the Houses of Parliament.

"I shall end there, you know, Aaron," Maraton sighed. "I am not looking
forward to it. It's a queer sort of a hothouse for a man."

"I wonder," Aaron murmured thoughtfully. "I used to think of you
travelling from one to the other of the great cities, and I used to
think that when you had spoken to them, the people would see the truth
and rise and take their own. I used to be very fond of the Old
Testament once," he went on, his voice sinking a little lower. "Life
was so simple in those days, and the words of a prophet seemed greater
than any laws."

"And nowadays," Maraton continued, "life has become like a huge and
complex piece of machinery. Humanity has given way to mechanics.
Aaron, I don't believe I can help this people by any other way save by
laws."

They both turned quickly around. Julia was standing by their side, and
with her the girl.

"I told her," Julia explained, "that it was not my money I was offering,
but the money of a gentleman who was the greatest friend the poor people
of the world have ever known. She wanted to speak to you."

The girl drew her shawl a little closer around her shoulders. Her face
bore upon it the terrible stamp of suffering, without its redeeming
purification. Save for her abundant hair, her very sex would have been
unrecognisable. She looked steadily at Maraton.

"You sent me money," she said.

"I did," he admitted.

"Are you one of those soft-hearted fools who go about doing this sort of
thing?" she demanded.

"I am not," he replied. "I object to giving money away. I am sorry to
see people suffering, but as a rule I think that it is their own fault
if they come to the straits that you are in. I sent the money to please
this young lady."

"Their own fault, eh?" she muttered.

"I qualify that," he added quickly. "Their own fault because they
submit to a heritage of unjust laws. It is your own fault because you
don't join together and smash the laws. You would fill the jails,
perhaps, but you'd make it easier for tho