quickly, like one who has run a race.

"Oh, dear master," she whispered--"let me call you that--don't, even
for a moment, be faint-hearted!"

The door was suddenly thrown open. Selingman entered, an enormous bunch
of roses in his hand, a green hat on the back of his head.

"Faint-hearted?" he exclaimed. "What a word! Who is faint-hearted?
Julia, I have brought you flowers. You would have to kiss rue for them
if he were not here. Don't glower at me. Every one kisses me. Great
ladies would if I asked them to. That's the best of being a genius.
Lord, what a wreck he looks! What's wrong with you, man? I know! I
met them at the corner of the street. There was the rat-faced fellow
with the red tie, and the miner--Labour Members, they call themselves.
I would like to see them with a spade! Have you been trying to get at
their brains, Maraton? What's that to make a man like you depressed?
Did you think they had any? Did you think you could draw a single spark
of fire out of dull pap like that? Bah!"

Julia was moving quietly about the room, putting the flowers in water.
Aaron had slipped in and was seated before his desk. Selingman, his
broad face set suddenly into hard lines, plumped himself into the chair
which Peter Dale had occupied.

"Man alive, lift your head--lift your head to the skies!" he ordered.
"You're the biggest man in this country. Will you treat the prick of a
pin like a mortal wound? What did you expect from them? Lord
Almighty! . . . I've packed my bag. I'm ready for the road. Two
hundred and fifty pounds a time from the _Daily Oracle_ for thumbnail
sketches of the Human Firebrand! Lord, what is any one depressed for in
this country! It's chock-full of humour. If I lived here long, I
should be fat."

He looked downward at his figure with complacency. Julia laughed
softly.

"Aren't you fat now?" she asked.

"Immense," he confessed, "but it's nothing to what I could be. It
agrees with me," he went on. "You see, I have learnt the art of being
satisfied with myself. I know what I am. I am content. That is where
you, my friend Maraton, need to grow a little older. Oh, you are great
enough, great enough if you only knew it! Even Maxendorf admits that,
and he told me frankly he's disappointed in you. Don't sit there like a
dumb figure any longer. We are all coming with you, aren't we? I have
brought my car over from Belgium. It is a caravan. It will hold us
all--Aaron, too. Let us start; let us get out of