hey care for; it's Gladstone. Wait and
see!'

He talked for three hours, at times as if he were already on the
platform before a crowd of East Enders who were shouting, 'Mutimer for
ever!' Adela fell into physical weariness; at length she with difficulty
kept her eyes open. His language was a mere buzzing in her ears; her
thoughts were far away.

'My Work at New Wanley' was written and published; Keene had the glory
of revising the manuscript. It made a pamphlet of thirty-two pages, and
was in reality an autobiography. It presented the ideal working man; the
author stood as a type for ever of the noble possibilities inherent in
his class. Written of course in the first person, it contained passages
of monumental self-satisfaction. Adela, too, was mentioned; to her
horror she found a glowing description of the work she had done among
the women and children. After reading that page she threw the pamphlet
aside and hid her face in her hands. She longed for the earth to cover
her.

But the publication had no sale worth speaking of. A hundred copies were
got rid of at the Socialist centres, and a couple of hundred more when
the price was reduced from twopence to a penny. This would not satisfy
Mutimer. He took the remaining three hundred off the hands of the
Union and sowed them broadcast over the East End, where already he was
actively at work. Then he had a thousand more struck off, and at every
meeting which he held gave away numerous copies. Keene wrote to suggest
that in a new edition there should be a woodcut portrait of the author
on the front. Mutimer was delighted with the idea, and at once had it
carried out.

Through this winter and the spring that followed he worked hard. It had
become a necessity of his existence to hear his name on the lips of men,
to be perpetually in evidence. Adela saw that day by day his personal
vanity grew more absorbing. When he returned from a meeting he would
occupy her for hours with a recitation of the speeches he had made, with
a minute account of what others had said of him. He succeeded in forming
a new branch of the Union in Clerkenwell, and by contributing half the
rent obtained a room for meetings. In this branch he was King Mutimer.

In the meantime the suit against Rodman was carried through, it could
have of course but one result. Rodman was sold up; but the profit
accruing to Hubert Eldon was trifling, for the costs were paid out
of the estate, and it appeared that Ro