yle of
the address which to Alfred's taste smacked of feebleness; he was
for Cambyses' vein. Still it rejoiced him to hear the noble truths of
democracy delivered as it were from the bema. To a certain order
of intellect the word addressed by the living voice to an attentive
assembly is always vastly impressive; when the word coincides with
private sentiment it excites enthusiasm. Alfred hated the aristocratic
order of things with a rabid hatred. In practice he could be as
coarsely overbearing with his social inferiors as that scion of
the nobility--existing of course somewhere--who bears the bell for
feebleness of the pia mater; but that made him none the less a sound
Radical. In thinking of the upper classes he always thought of Hubert
Eldon, and that name was scarlet to him. Never trust the thoroughness of
the man who is a revolutionist on abstract principles; personal feeling
alone goes to the root of the matter.

Many were the gentlemen to whom Alfred had the happiness of being
introduced in the course of the day. Among others was Mr. Keene the
journalist. At the end of a lively conversation Mr. Keene brought out a
copy of the 'Belwick Chronicle,' that day's issue.

'You'll find a few things of mine here,' he said. 'Put it in your
pocket, and look at it afterwards. By-the-by, there is a paragraph
marked; I meant it for Mutimer. Never mind, give it him when you've done
with it.'

Alfred bestowed the paper in the breast pocket of his greatcoat, and did
not happen to think of it again till late that evening. His discovery of
it at length was not the only event of the day which came just too late
for the happiness of one with whose fortunes we are concerned.

A little after dark, when the bell was ringing which summoned Mutimer's
workpeople to the tea provided for them, Hubert Eldon was approaching
the village by the road from Agworth: he was on foot, and had chosen his
time in order to enter Wanley unnoticed. His former visit, when he was
refused at the Walthams' door, had been paid at an impulse; he had come
down from London by an early train, and did not even call to see his
mother at her new house in Agworth. Nor did ho visit her on his way
back; he walked straight to the railway station and took the first train
townwards. To-day he came in a more leisurely way. It was certain news
contained in a letter from his mother which brought him, and with her he
spent some hours before starting to walk towards Wanley.