ever establish his reputation for
acumen. In his voice of quiet malice, with his frequent deliberate
pauses, with the wonted emphasis on absurd pronunciations, he spoke
somewhat thus:--

'In the course of his address--I shall say nothin' about its qualities,
the time for discussion will come presently--our Comrade has said not a
few 'ard things about certain individooals who put themselves forward as
perractical Socialists--'

'Not 'ard enough!' roared a voice from the back of the room.

Mr. Cowes turned his lank figure deliberately, and gazed for a moment in
the quarter whence the interruption had come. Then he resumed.

'I agree with that involuntary exclamation. Certainly, not 'ard enough.
And the question I wish to put to our Comrade is this: Is he, or is he
not, aweer of certain scandalous doin's on the part of one of these said
individooals, I might say actions which, from the Socialist point of
view, amount to crimes? If our Comrade is aweer of what I refer to,
then it seems to me it was his dooty to distinctly mention it. If he
was _not_ aweer, then we in this neighbourhood shall be only too glad
to enlighten him. I distinctly assert that a certain individooal we all
have in our thoughts has proved himself a traitor to the cause of the
people. Comrades will understand me. And that's the question I wish to
put.'

Mr. Cowes had introduced the subject which a considerable number of
those present were bent on publicly discussing. Who it was that had
first spread the story of Mutimer's matrimonial concerns probably no one
could have determined. It was not Daniel Dabbs, though Daniel, partly
from genuine indignation, partly in consequence of slowly growing
personal feeling against the Mutimers, had certainly supplied Richard's
enemies with corroborative details. Under ordinary circumstances
Mutimer's change of fortune would have seemed to his old mates a
sufficient explanation of his behaviour to Emma Vine; they certainly
would not have gone out of their way to condemn him. But Richard was
by this time vastly unpopular with most of those who had once glorified
him. Envy had had time to grow, and was assisted by Richard's avoidance
of personal contact with his Hoxton friends. When they spoke of him now
it was with sneers and sarcasms. Some one had confidently asserted that
the so-called Socialistic enterprise at Wanley was a mere pretence,
that Mutimer was making money just like any other capitalist, and the
lea