they kept the tongue. The
shipping in the lower reaches below the Tower there carried the flags of
every country under the sky.... As he went along the riverside he met a
group of dusky students, Chinese or Japanese. Cambridge had abounded in
Indians; and beneath that tall clock tower at Westminster it seemed as
though the world might centre. The background of the Englishman's world
reached indeed to either pole, it went about the earth, his background
it was--for all that he was capable of doing. All this had awaited
him....

Is it any wonder if a young man with an excitable imagination came at
times to the pitch of audible threats? If the extreme indulgence of his
opportunity and his sense of ability and vigour lifted his vanity at
moments to the kingly pitch? If he ejaculated and made a gesture or so
as he went along the Embankment?

5

In the disquisition upon choice that opened Benham's paper on
ARISTOCRACY, he showed himself momentarily wiser than his day-dreams.
For in these day-dreams he did seem to himself to be choosing among
unlimited possibilities. Yet while he dreamt other influences were
directing his movements. There were for instance his mother, Lady
Marayne, who saw a very different London from what he did, and his
mother Dame Nature, who cannot see London at all. She was busy in his
blood as she is busy in the blood of most healthy young men; common
experience must fill the gaps for us; and patiently and thoroughly
she was preparing for the entrance of that heroine, whom not the most
self-centred of heroes can altogether avoid....

And then there was the power of every day. Benham imagined himself at
large on his liberating steed of property while indeed he was mounted
on the made horse of Civilization; while he was speculating whither he
should go, he was already starting out upon the round. One hesitates
upon the magnificent plan and devotion of one's lifetime and meanwhile
there is usage, there are engagements. Every morning came Merkle, the
embodiment of the established routine, the herald of all that the world
expected and required Benham to be and do. Usually he awakened Benham
with the opening of his door and the soft tinkle of the curtain rings as
he let in the morning light. He moved softly about the room, gathering
up and removing the crumpled hulls of yesterday; that done he reappeared
at the bedside with a cup of admirable tea and one thin slice of
bread-and-butter, reported on t