aturin laughed.

"Well, we go wrong when we don't go right. That's just it, we must go
some way. And I'm sure, from what I gather, that she isn't wholly
satisfied with Syndicalism."

"What is right?" demanded Insall.

"Oh, I don't intend to turn her over to Mr. Worrall and make a
sociologist and a militant suffragette out of her. She isn't that kind,
anyhow. But I could give her good literature to read--yours, for
instance," she added maliciously.

"You're preposterous, Augusta," Insall exclaimed.

"I may be, but you've got to indulge me. I've taken this fancy to her
--of course I mean to see more of her. But--you know how hard it is for
me, sometimes, since I've been left alone."

Insall laid his hand affectionately on her shoulder.

"I remember what you said the first day I saw her, that the strike was in
her," Mrs. Maturin continued. "Well, I see now that she does express and
typify it--and I don't mean the `labour movement' alone, or this strike
in Rampton, which is symptomatic, but crude. I mean something bigger
--and I suppose you do--the protest, the revolt, the struggle for
self-realization that is beginning to be felt all over the nation, all
over the world today, that is not yet focussed and self-conscious, but
groping its way, clothing itself in any philosophy that seems to fit it.
I can imagine myself how such a strike as this might appeal to a girl
with a sense of rebellion against sordidness and lack of
opportunity--especially if she has had a tragic experience. And sometimes
I suspect she has had one."

"Well, it's an interesting theory," Insall admitted indulgently.

"I'm merely amplifying your suggestions, only you won't admit that they
are yours. And she was your protegee." "And you are going to take her off
my hands." "I'm not so sure," said Mrs. Maturin.

CHAPTER XIX

The Hampton strike had reached the state of grim deadlock characteristic
of all stubborn wars. There were aggressions, retaliations on both sides,
the antagonism grew more intense. The older labour unions were accused by
the strikers of playing the employers' game, and thus grew to be hated
even more than the "capitalists." These organizations of the skilled had
entered but half-heartedly into a struggle that now began to threaten,
indeed, their very existence, and when it was charged that the Textile
Workers had been attempting to secure recruits from the ranks of the
strikers, and had secretly offered the millowners