e a loss to Scotland Yard," Beth ventured. "You would
have been admirably fitted for that--er--delicate kind of work."

"Well, I think I should," he rejoined. "You see I found _you_ out, and
it was not so easy, for--er--no one seemed to know you. However, that
does not matter. We'll soon introduce you."

Beth smiled. "Thank you," she said drily, "that will be very nice."

"I'll bring Fitzkillingham presently; he'll do anything for me. He was
one of our set at the 'Varsity. That's the best of going to the
'Varsity. You meet the right kind of people there, people who can help
you, you know, if you can get in with them as I did. You'll like
Fitzkillingham. He's a very good fellow."

"Indeed!" said Beth. "What has he done?"

"Done!" he echoed. "Oh, nothing that I know of. Consider his position!
The Earl of Fitzkillingham, with a rent-roll of fifty thousand a year,
has no need to do; he has only to be. There, he's caught my eye. I'll
go and fetch him."

"Pray do nothing of the kind," said Beth emphatically. "I have no wish
to know him."

The young man, disconcerted, turned and looked her full in the face.
"Why not?" he gasped.

"First of all, because you were going to present him without asking my
permission," Beth said, "which is a liberty I should have had to
resent in any case by refusing to know him; and secondly, because a
man worth fifty thousand a year who has done no good in the world is
not worth knowing. I don't think he should be allowed to _be_ unless
he can be made to _do_. Pray excuse me if I shock your prejudices,"
she added, smiling. "You do not know, perhaps, that in _our_ set,
knowing people for position rather than for character is quite out of
date?"

The young man smiled superciliously. "That is rather a bourgeois
sentiment, is it not?" he said.

"On the contrary," said Beth, "it is the other that is the huckster
spirit. What is called knowing the right people is only the commercial
principle of seeking some advantage. Certain people make a man's
acquaintance, and pay him flattering attentions, not because their
hearts are good and they wish to give him pleasure, but because there
is some percentage of advantage to be gained by knowing him. That is
to be bourgeois in the vulgar sense, if you like! And that is the
trade-mark stamped upon most of us--selfishness! snobbishness! One
sees it in the conventional society manners, which are superficially
veneered, fundamentally bad; the outcome of s