article; I'll defend it."

Dartrey sighed.

"It will be a difficult task, Tallente. The spirit has gone. People
have forgotten already the danger which we so narrowly escaped--forgotten
before the grass has grown on the graves of our saviours."

"Still, you wouldn't have Mr. Tallente give in without a struggle?"
Jane asked.

"I hope that Tallente will fight," Dartrey replied, "but I must warn
you, Lady Jane, that I am the guardian of a cause, and for that reason
I am an opportunist. If the division of our party which consists of the
trades unionists refuses to listen to any explanation and threatens
severance if Tallente remains, then he will have to go."

"So far as your personal view is concerned," Tallente asked, "you could
do without Miller, couldn't you?"

"I could thrive without him," Dartrey declared heartily.

"Then you shall," Tallente asserted. "We'll show the world what his
local trades unionism stands for. He has belittled the whole principle
of cooperation. He twangs all the time one brazen chord instead of
seeking to give expression to the clear voices of the millions. Miller
would impoverish the country with his accursed limited production, his
threatened strikes, his parochial outlook. Englishmen are brimful of
common sense, Dartrey, if you know where to dig for it. We'll
materialise your own dream. We'll bring the principles of socialism
into our human and daily life and those octopus trades unions shall feel
the knife."

Jane laid her hand for a moment upon his arm.

"Why aren't you oftener enthusiastic?"

He glanced at her swiftly. Their eyes met. Fearlessly she held his
fingers for a moment,--a long, wonderful moment.

"I was getting past enthusiasms," he said; "I was dropping into the
dry-as-dust school--the argumentative, logical, cold, ineffectual
school. The last few months have changed that. I feel young again. If
Dartrey will give me a free hand, I'll deliver up to him Miller's
bones."

Dartrey had come to the dinner in an uncertain frame of mind. No one
knew better than he the sinister power behind Miller. Yet before
Tallente had finished speaking he had made up his mind.

"I'll stand by you, Tallente," he declared, "even if it puts us back a
year or so. Miller carries with him always an atmosphere of unwholesome
things. He has got the Bolshevist filth in his blood and I don't trust
him. No one trusts him. He shall take his following where he will, and
if we are not strong en