and Pauline poured
the tea. As Olivia felt shy and was hungry, she ate the little
sandwiches and looked and listened and thought--looked and thought
rather than listened. These were certainly well-bred people, yet she
did not like them.

"They're in earnest about trifles," she said to herself, "and trifle
about earnest things." Yet it irritated her to feel that, though they
would care not at all for her low opinion of them, she did care a great
deal because they would fail to appreciate her.

"They ought to be jailed," Langdon was drawling with considerable
emphasis.

"Who, Mr. Langdon?" inquired Mrs. Fanshaw--she had been as abstracted
as Olivia. "You've been filling the jails rapidly to-day, and hanging
not a few."

Mrs. Herron laughed. "He says your husband and Mrs. Dumont's and mine
should be locked up as conspirators."

"Precisely," said Langdon, tranquilly. "They'll sign a few papers, and
when they're done, what'll have happened? Not one more sheep'll be
raised. Not one more pound of wool will be shorn. Not one more
laborer'll be employed. Not a single improvement in any process of
manufacture. But, on the other hand, the farmer'll have to sell his
wool cheaper, the consumer'll have to pay a bigger price for blankets
and all kinds of clothes, for carpets--for everything wool goes into.
And these few men will have trebled their fortunes and at least trebled
their incomes. Does anybody deny that such a performance is a crime?
Why, in comparison, a burglar is honorable and courageous. HE risks
liberty and life."

"Dreadful! Dreadful!" exclaimed Mrs. Fanshaw, in mock horror. "You
must go at once, Mowbray, and lead the police in a raid on Jack's
office."

"Thanks--it's more comfortable here." Langdon took a piece of a
curious-looking kind of hot bread. "Extraordinary good stuff this is,"
he interjected; then went on: "And I've done my duty when I've stated
the facts. Also, I'm taking a little stock in the new trust. But I
don't pose as a 'captain of industry' or 'promoter of civilization.' I
admit I'm a robber. My point is the rotten hypocrisy of my fellow
bandits--no, pickpockets, by gad!"

Olivia looked at him with disapproving interest. It was the first time
she had been present at a game of battledore and shuttlecock with what
she regarded as fundamental morals. Langdon noted her expression and
said to Pauline in a tone of contrition that did not conceal his
amusement: "I've shoc