eather. The air must be
full of germs. I hardly know whet her we ought to eat even this loaf.
What do you think?"

Every one's dinner was spoilt. Theodore declared that really, when one
considered the complicated and expensive machinery of local government,
if sewer traps and _affluvias_ were allowed to exist in the immediate
neighbourhood of bakers' shops, why it really made one inclined to
think and ask whether there might not be something in the arguments of
the Socialists.

Christopher one day brought home some knickknack which he had bought
from a City pedlar, one of those men who stand at the edge of the
pavement between a vigilant police and a menacing vehicular traffic. It
amused his sister-in-law, who showed it to her husband. Theodore having
learnt whence it came was not a little concerned.

"Now, if that isn't like Christopher! When will that boy learn ordinary
prudence? The idea of buying things from a man whose clothes more
likely than not reek with infection! Dear me! Has he never reflected
where those fellows live? Destroy the thing at once and wash your hands
very carefully, I beg. I do hope you haven't been making pastry or
lemonade? As if the inevitable risks of life were not enough."

It was, of course, utterly unsuspected by the elder members of the
household that Christopher had "formed a connexion," in so innocent a
sense, with a young woman who sold programmes and took tips at the
theatre. That connexion had come about in the simplest way. One Sunday
evening, a year ago, Christopher was returning from Clapham Common on
the top of a crowded tram, and next to him sat a girl with a fresh
colour, whom he eyed with respectfully furtive admiration. This young
person had paid her fare, but carelessly dropped the ticket, and it
chanced that an inspector who came on board at a certain point raised
the question whether she had really paid. The conductor weakly
expressed a doubt, suggesting that this passenger had ascended with two
or three other people since his last collection of fares. Here was a
chance for young Mr. Parish, who could give conscientious evidence.
Very hot in the face, he declared, affirmed, and asseverated that the
young lady was telling the truth, and his energy at length prevailed.
Of course, this led to colloquy between the two. Polly Sparkes, for she
it was, behaved modestly but graciously. It was true she had exhibited
short temper in her passage with the officials, but Christoph