!
It'll do us a sight of good.'

'And where's your weekly wages to come from?' inquired his mother.

'Oh, I'll look after that. I only wish they'd refuse me all round; the
more of that kind of thing the better for us. I'm not afraid but I can
earn my living.'

Through all this Emma Vine had sat with her thoughtful eyes constantly
turned on Richard. It was plain how pride struggled with anxiety in her
mind. When Richard had kept silence for a moment, she ventured to speak,
having tried in vain to meet his look.

'Jane's ill again, Richard,' she said.

Mutimer had to summon his thoughts from a great distance; his endeavour
to look sympathetic was not very successful.

'Not the fever again?'

'Yes, it is,' she replied sadly.

'Going to work in the wet, I suppose?'

He shrugged his shoulders; in his present mood the fact was not so much
personally interesting to him as in the light of another case against
capitalism. Emma's sister had to go a long way to her daily employment,
and could not afford to ride; the fifth attack of rheumatic fever was
the price she paid for being permitted to earn ten shillings a week.

Daniel returned with both jugs foaming, his face on a broad grin of
anticipation. There was a general move to the table. Richard began to
carve roast beef like a freeman, not by any means like the serf he had
repeatedly declared himself in the course of the evening's oratory.

'Her Royal 'Ighness out?' asked Daniel, with constraint not solely due
to the fact that his mouth was full.

'She's round at Mrs. Took's, I should think,' was Mrs. Mutimer's reply.
'Staying supper, per'aps.'

Richard, after five minutes of surprising trencher-work, recommenced
conversation. The proceedings of the evening at the hall, which was the
centre for Socialist gatherings in this neighbourhood, were discussed
by him and Daniel with much liveliness. Dan was disposed to take the
meeting on its festive and humorous side; for him, economic agitation
was a mode of passing a few hours amid congenial uproar. Whenever
stamping and shouting were called for, Daniel was your man. Abuse of
employers, it was true, gave a zest to the occasion, and to applaud
the martyrdom of others was as cheery an occupation as could be asked;
Daniel had no idea of sacrificing his own weekly wages, and therein
resembled most of those who had been loud in uncompromising rhetoric.
Richard, on the other hand, was unmistakably zealous. His sense of
hum