ould be fed and
clothed and kept to labour?'

'Personally, quite content; for I think it very unlikely that the
majority will ever be fit for anything else. I _know_ that at present
they desire nothing else.'

'Then they must be taught to desire more.'

Hubert again paused. When he resumed it was with a smile which strove to
be good-humoured.

'We had better not argue of these things. If I said all that I think you
would accuse me of brutality. In logic you will overcome me. Put me down
as one of those who represent reaction and class-prejudice. I am all
prejudice.'

Adela rose.

'We have talked a long time,' she said, trying to speak lightly. 'We
have such different views. I wish there were less class-prejudice.'

Hubert scarcely noticed her words. She was quitting him, and he clung to
the last moment of her presence.

'Shall you go--eventually go to London?' he asked.

'I can't say. My husband has not yet been able to make plans.'

The word irritated him. He half averted his face.

'Good-bye, Mr. Eldon.'

She did not offer her hand--durst not do so. Hubert bowed without
speaking.

When she was near the Manor gates she heard footsteps behind her. She
turned and saw her husband. Her cheeks flushed, for she had been walking
in deep thought. It seemed to her for an instant as if the subject of
her preoccupation could be read upon her face.

'Where have you been?' Mutimer asked, indifferently.

'For a walk. Into the wood.'

He was examining her, for the disquiet of her countenance could not
escape his notice.

'Why did you go alone? It would have done Alice good to get her out a
little.'

'I'm afraid she wouldn't have come.'

He hesitated.

'Has she been saying anything to you?'

'Only that she is troubled and anxious.'

They walked on together in silence, Mutimer with bowed head and knitted
brows.

CHAPTER XXVI

The making a virtue of necessity, though it argues lack of
ingenuousness, is perhaps preferable to the wholly honest demonstration
of snarling over one's misfortunes. It may result in good even to the
hypocrite, who occasionally surprises himself with the pleasure he finds
in wearing a front of nobility, and is thereby induced to consider the
advantages of upright behaviour adopted for its own sake. Something of
this kind happened in the case of Richard Mutimer. Seeing that there was
no choice but to surrender his fortune, he set to work to make the most
of abdication, an