llow its dictates to the
exclusion of other considerations...."

The perplexity increased.

Benham felt he must be more general. He went on to emphasize the
brotherhood of man, the right to equal opportunity, equal privilege,
freedom to develop their idiosyncrasies as far as possible, unhindered
by the idiosyncrasies of others. He could feel the sympathy and
understanding of his hearers returning. "You see," said Benham, "you
must have generosity. You must forget ancient scores. Do you not see the
world must make a fresh beginning?"

He was entirely convinced he had them with him. The heads nodded assent,
the bright eyes and lips followed the slow disentanglement of his bad
German.

"Free yourselves and the world," he said.

Applause.

"And so," he said breaking unconsciously into English, "let us begin by
burning these BEASTLY mortgages!"

And with a noble and dramatic gesture Benham cast his handful on the
fire. The assenting faces became masks of horror. A score of hands
clutched at those precious papers, and a yell of dismay and anger filled
the room. Some one caught at his throat from behind. "Don't kill him!"
cried some one. "He fought for us!"

6

An hour later Benham returned in an extraordinarily dishevelled
and battered condition to his hotel. He found his friend in anxious
consultation with the hotel proprietor.

"We were afraid that something had happened to you," said his friend.

"I got a little involved," said Benham.

"Hasn't some one clawed your cheek?"

"Very probably," said Benham.

"And torn your coat? And hit you rather heavily upon the neck?"

"It was a complicated misunderstanding," said Benham. "Oh! pardon! I'm
rather badly bruised upon that arm you're holding."

7

Benham told the story to White as a jest against himself.

"I see now of course that they could not possibly understand my point of
view," he said....

"I'm not sure if they quite followed my German....

"It's odd, too, that I remember saying, 'Let's burn these mortgages,'
and at the time I'm almost sure I didn't know the German for
mortgage...."

It was not the only occasion on which other people had failed to
grasp the full intention behind Benham's proceedings. His aristocratic
impulses were apt to run away with his conceptions of brotherhood, and
time after time it was only too manifest to White that Benham's
pallid flash of anger had astonished the subjects of his disinterested
observatio