an be done?' Hamilton asked, in a kind of compassionate
tone--compassion rather for the trouble of his chief than for the
supposed national tribulation. Hamilton was as generous-hearted a young
fellow as could be, but his affections were more evidenced in the
concrete than in the abstract. He had grown up accustomed to all these
distracting social questions, and he did not suppose that anything very
much was likely to come of them--at any rate, he supposed that if
anything were to come of them it would come of itself, and that we could
not do much to help or hinder it. So he was not disposed to distress
himself much about these social complications, although, if he felt sure
that his purse or his labour could avail in any way to make things
better, his help most assuredly would not be wanting. But he did not
like the Dictator to be worried about such things. The Dictator's work,
he thought, was to be kept for other fields.

'Nothing can be done, I suppose,' the Dictator said gloomily. 'But, my
dear Hamilton, that is the trouble of the whole business. That does not
help us to put it out of our minds--it only racks our minds all the
more. To think that it should be so! To think that in this great
country, so rich in money, so splendid in intellect, we should have to
face that horrible problem of misery and poverty and vice, and, having
stared at it long enough, simply close our eyes, or turn away and
deliver it as our final utterance that there is nothing to be done!'

'Anyhow,' Hamilton said, 'there is nothing to be done by you and me.
It's of no use our wearing out our energies about it.'

'No,' the Dictator assented, not without drawing a deep breath; 'but if
I had time and energy I should like to try. We have no such problems to
solve in Gloria, Hamilton.'

'No, by Jupiter!' Hamilton exclaimed, 'and therefore the very sooner we
get back there the better.'

The Dictator sent a compassionate and even tender glance at his young
companion. He had the best reason to know how sincere and
self-sacrificing was Hamilton's devotion to the cause of Gloria; but he
could not doubt that just at present there was mingled in the young
man's heart, along with the wish to be serving actively the cause of
Gloria, the wish also to be free of London, to be away from the scene of
a bitter disappointment. The Dictator's heart was deeply touched. He had
admired with the most cordial admiration the courage, the noble
self-repression, whi