a bad name with many who were hitherto merely indifferent, and who might
in time have been brought over. Let it be understood that in this hall
the true doctrine was preached, and that the 'Fiery Cross' was the true
organ of English Socialism as distinguished from foreign crazes. The
strength of England had ever been her sobriety; Englishmen did not fly
at impossibilities like noisy children. He would not hesitate to say
that the revolutionism preached in the newspaper called the 'Tocsin' was
dangerous, was immoral. And so on.

Richard was not at his best this evening. You might have seen Mrs.
Westlake abandon her attentive position, and lean back rather wearily;
you might have seen a covert smile on a few of the more intelligent
faces. It was awkward for Mutimer to be praising moderation in a
movement directed against capital, and this was not exactly the audience
for eulogies of Great Britain at the expense of other countries. The
applause when the orator seated himself was anything but hearty. Richard
knew it, and inwardly cursed Mr. Westlake for taking the wind out of his
sails.

Very different was the scene in the meeting-room behind the coffee-shop.
There, upon Comrade Roodhouse's harangue, followed a debate more
stirring than any on the records of the Islington and Hoxton branch. The
room was thoroughly full; the roof rang with tempestuous acclamations.
Messrs. Cowes and Cullen were in their glory; they roared with delight
at each depreciatory epithet applied to Mr. Westlake and his henchmen,
and prompted the speakers with words and phrases of a rich vernacular.
If anything, Comrade Roodhouse fell a little short of what was expected
of him. His friends had come together prepared for gory language, but
the murderous instigations of Clerkenwell Green were not repeated with
the same crudity. The speaker dealt in negatives; not thus and thus was
the social millennium to be brought about, it was open to his hearers to
conceive the practical course. For the rest, the heresiarch had a mighty
flow of vituperative speech. Aspirates troubled him, so that for the
most part he cast them away, and the syntax of his periods was often
anacoluthic; but these matters were of no moment.

Questions being called for, Mr. Cowes and Mr. Cullen of course started
up simultaneously. The former gentleman got the ear of the meeting.
With preliminary swaying of the hand, he looked round as one about to
propound a question which would for