A servant ushered in
Maraton.

"You have not forgotten, then," she said softly. "Come and sit in my
favourite chair and rest for a few moments. I am sure that you must be
tired."

He sank down with an air of content. She sat upon the end of the sofa,
close to him, her head resting upon her hands.

"Well," she asked, "have you converted Sir William?"

"Up to a certain extent, I believe," he answered, after a momentary
hesitation. "I don't think that he trusts me. Lawyers have a habit of
not trusting people, you know. On the other hand, I don't think he
means to give any trouble. Of course, they don't like what they have to
face. No one does. It isn't every one who has the sagacity of your
uncle."

"I am glad," she said, "that you appreciate him. Tell me now what is
going to happen?"

"Mr. Foley will have his own way," Maraton declared. "The Manchester
strike will be over in a few days. The Sheffield strike will be dealt
with in the same manner. People will talk about the great loss of
trade, the shocking depreciation of profits, the lowered incomes of the
people, and all that sort of thing. What will really happen will be
that the investor and the manufacturer are going to pay, and Labour is
going to get just about a tithe of its own in these two cases. The
country will be none the poorer. The money will be still there, only
its distribution will be saner."

"And the end of it?" she murmured. "What will the end of it be?"

"We can none of us tell that;" he answered gravely. "There are some,
like Sir William, who insist that when Labour has once started, as it
will have started after Sheffield, there will be no holding it. I can
not answer for it. I only say that the course Mr. Foley has adopted is
distinctly the best for the country. If an obstinate man had been in
his place to-day, nothing could have saved you from civil war first and
possibly from foreign conquest later."

"A month ago," she observed, "you seemed fully prepared for these
things."

"I was," he admitted.

"But you are an Englishman, are you not?"

"I am English. I daresay that under other considerations I might even
have called myself a patriotic Englishman. As it is, I have very little
feeling of that sort. There has been too much self-glorification, and
it's the wrong class of people who've revelled in it and enjoyed it.
It's a fine thing to die for one's country. It's a shameful thing that
that country should grind the life and brains