rom them to the passive faces of his attendants.... When he
looked again Howard was extending his hands and moving his head like
a man who protests. He was interrupted, it seemed, by one of the
white-robed men rapping the table.

The conversation lasted an interminable time to Graham's sense. His
eyes rose to the still giant at whose feet the Council sat. Thence they
wandered at last to the walls of the hall. It was decorated in long
painted panels of a quasi-Japanese type, many of them very beautiful.
These panels were grouped in a great and elaborate framing of dark
metal, which passed into the metallic caryatidae of the galleries, and
the great structural lines of the interior. The facile grace of these
panels enhanced the mighty white effort that laboured in the centre
of the scheme. Graham's eyes came back to the Council, and Howard
was descending the steps. As he drew nearer his features could be
distinguished, and Graham saw that he was flushed and blowing out his
cheeks. His countenance was still disturbed when presently he reappeared
along the gallery.

"This way," he said concisely, and they went on in silence to a little
door that opened at their approach. The two men in red stopped on either
side of this door. Howard and Graham passed in, and Graham, glancing
back, saw the white-robed Council still standing in a close group and
looking at him. Then the door closed behind him with a heavy thud, and
for the first time since his awakening he was in silence. The floor,
even, was noiseless to his feet.

Howard opened another door, and they were in the first of two contiguous
chambers furnished in white and green. "What Council was that?" began
Graham. "What were they discussing? What have they to do with me?"
Howard closed the door carefully, heaved a huge sigh, and said something
in an undertone. He walked slanting ways across the room and turned,
blowing out his cheeks again. "Ugh!" he grunted, a man relieved.

Graham stood regarding him.

"You must understand," began Howard abruptly, avoiding Graham's eyes,
"that our social order is very complex. A half explanation, a bare
unqualified statement would give you false impressions. As a matter of
fact--it is a case of compound interest partly--your small fortune, and
the fortune of your cousin Warming which was left to you--and certain
other beginnings--have become very considerable. And in other ways
that will be hard for you to understand, you have become a