red fifteen copies
from Sidgwick & Jackson--good publishers. Do you know them? I've marked
our parts--here they are--no more time. Good-night."

He was gone in a second. And the unfortunate secretary was left with the
lot of distributing copies and drawing up fresh notices. It was just on
lock-up, so there was no time to do anything till the next day. He
settled himself down to read the play. In a very short while he was
thoroughly engrossed; by the time he had reached the end of the first
act he had no doubt that Saturday would witness the most successful
meeting of the Stoics since the historic occasion when Macdonald and
Rogers had been persuaded to speak on opposite sides on "Trade
Unionism," and Rogers had been most gloriously routed.

Betteridge went in search of Tester and Gordon.

"Come up to my study and read a play Ferrers has got hold of for the
Stoics. It's glorious stuff."

"All right," said Gordon. "I will go and fetch Rudd."

"For God's sake, don't bring that outsider."

"Oh, hell, why not? He is quite respectable; and, after all, he is one
of the best of our regular readers."

"All right then: fetch him along."

Since their scandalous ramble Gordon had become more or less friends
with Rudd, and had to a large extent helped to make his life more
bearable.

The four sat silent, reading the play. There was occasionally a
suppressed laugh: otherwise no one spoke at all.

In under an hour they had all finished.

"Jolly good," said Gordon. "I do like seeing this younger generation up
against the rotten conventions of the mid-Victorian era."

"Deal gently with them," murmured Betteridge. "Their horsehair
arm-chairs have stood the test of time very well."

"Too well: but their Puritan ideas are in the melting-pot now. Their day
is over."

"You know I am not sure that the Stoics is the right audience for a play
like this," said Tester.

"Good heavens, man," protested Gordon, "you don't think it would corrupt
their morals, do you?"

"Of course not, you ass! I don't think they would understand it: that's
all. They will laugh at it, and think it funny. But they won't really
see what Houghton is driving at. They won't understand that he is trying
to cut away the shackles of mature thought that are impeding the limbs
of youth. The lads in the Remove will be frightfully amused; they will
think the father an awful old fool, and the son the devil of a rip. They
won't see that both of them are real ch