not be described at length, but it is
necessary that it be referred to briefly. A certain manufacturer had a
son some few years older than Paul. This manufacturer was named
Wilson. He was one of the largest employers in the town, and his son
Ned was looked upon as one who would one day be one of the most
important men in Brunford. He was a fellow of some intelligence, and,
while essentially of the manufacturing class, he had, perhaps owing to
his education, ambitions to be associated with the older families of
the county. He was strongly opposed to the democratic feeling which
prevailed among the working classes, and, on more than one occasion
strongly resented the expression of certain opinions by his father's
employees. When Paul was about twenty years of age a quarrel sprang up
between him and young Ned Wilson. Paul, burning with enthusiasm for
the class whose fortunes he had espoused, spoke at a public gathering,
and exposed the ill-treatment of one of Wilson's employees. Wilson
appeared at the gathering and denied the statement which Paul made, and
hurled many offensive epithets at him. It was a sordid affair
altogether, and the matter would not have been mentioned but for its
influence on Paul's after-life. The result of the quarrel was that
Paul was discharged from the position he had held ever since he came to
Brunford, and was, as a consequence, for some time out of work.
Moreover, lying stories were set afloat, which, while they did not harm
him greatly, caused him to feel bitterly towards the man who had
maligned him.

When Paul had been in Brunford about five years a strike took place
which convulsed the whole town. Like many another of these
manufacturing disturbances, the cause seemed trivial in the extreme.
Nevertheless, it spread from mill to mill, and from trade to trade, in
such a way that practically the whole of the operatives had ceased
working. As all the world knows by this time, the unions of the North
of England are so closely connected as to form them into one
homogeneous body. In this case, two people, a man and his wife, became
at cross purposes with what was called the tackler. This tackler, or
foreman, had insisted upon something which to the man and his wife was
utterly unfair. Eventually they were discharged, and on their appeal
to the secretary of the union to which they belonged, the whole case
was taken up seriously and discussed with a great deal of warmth. The
employ