speaks for itself."

Hinton, the only one in clerical dress, smiled a little wearily.

"Sometimes," he said, "I wish it would speak a little louder. East End
work is all the same. One feels ashamed of preaching religion to a
starving people."

Macheson nodded his sympathy.

"I know what you mean," he said. "It drove me from the East to the West.
We should preach at the one and feed the other!... Of course, I
personally have always been handicapped. I haven't been able to
subscribe to any of the established churches. But I do believe in the
laws of retribution, whether you call them human or Divine. One's moral
delinquencies pay one out just as bodily excesses do. Always one's debts
are to be paid, and it's a terrible burden the drones must carry. After
all, I've come to the conclusion that there's heaps of sound moral
teaching to be drummed into our fellow-creatures without the necessity
of being orthodox!"

"You speak lightly of your own work, Macheson," Franklin said, "but
there is one thing we must none of us forget. Our schools, our farms,
our colonies, all our attempts, indeed, owe their very being to your
open purse----"

Macheson held out his hand.

"Franklin," he said, "I want to tell you something which I think none of
you know. I want to tell you where most of my money came from, and
you'll understand then why I've been so anxious to get rid of it--or a
part of it--in this way. Did you ever hear of Ferguson Davis, the
money-lender? Yes, I can see by your faces you did. Well, he was my
mother's brother, and he died without a will when I was a child, and the
whole lot came to me!"

"A million and a quarter," some one murmured.

"More," Macheson answered. "I was at Oxford when I understood exactly
the whole business, and it seemed like nothing but a curse to me. Then I
talked to the dear old professor, and he showed me the way. I can
honestly say that not one penny of that money has ever been spent,
directly or indirectly, upon myself. I believe that if the old man could
come to life and read my bank-book he'd have a worse fit than the one
which carried him off. I appointed myself the trustee of his fortune,
and it's spread pretty well all over the world. I've never refused to
stand at the back of any reasonable scheme for the betterment of our
fellow-creatures. There have been a few failures perhaps, but many
successes. The Davis buildings are mine--in trust, of course. They've
done well. I've a lar