amen_.

Then a wave of young faces rolled upward to the balcony, where stood a
grey-headed, grey-bearded, spectacled figure. It was one of the honorary
managers. The children stood to attention like birds before a snake. One
almost expected to hear them sing "God bless the squire and his
relations...." The Gentleman was well-tailored, and apart from his
habiliments there was, in every line of his figure, that which suggested
solidity, responsibility, and the substantial virtues. I have seen him
at Committee meetings of various charitable enterprises; himself,
duplicated again and again. One charitable worker is always exactly like
the other, allowing for differences of sex. They are of one type, with
one manner, and--I feel sure--with one idea. I am certain that were you
to ask twenty members of a Charity committee for opinions on aviation,
Swedenborgism, the Royal Academy, and Little Tich, each would express
the same views in the same words and with the same gestures.

This gentleman was of the City class; he carried an air of sleekness.
Clearly he was a worthy citizen, a man who had Got On, and had now
abandoned himself to this most odious of vices. And there he stood, in a
lilac light, splashed with voluptuous crimsons and purples, dispensing
Charity to the little ones before him whose souls were of hills and the
sea. He began to address them. It appeared that the Orphanage had
received, that very morning, forty more children; and he wished to
observe how unnecessary it was for him to say with what pleasure this
had been done. Many thousands of children now holding exalted positions
in banks and the Civil Service could look to him as to their father, in
the eighty or more years of the School's life, and he was proud to feel
that his efforts were producing such Fine Healthy Young Citizens. The
children knew--did they not?--that they had a Good Home, with loving
guardians who would give them the most careful training suited to their
position in life. They were clothed, maintained, and drilled, as
concerned their bodies; and, as concerned their souls, they had the
habits of Industry and Frugality inculcated into them, and they were
guided in the paths of Religion and Virtue. They had good plain food,
suited to their position in life, and healthy exercise in the way of
Manly Sports and Ladylike Recreations. He quoted texts from the
Scriptures, about the sight of the Widow touching those chords which
vibrate sympatheti