to others, or retiring from the wild scene of
contest. Gwent judged it wisest to remain within the church portal till
the crowd should clear, and there, safely ensconced, he watched the
maddened mass of foolish sight-seers, all of whom had plainly left
their daily avocations merely to stare at a man and woman wedded, with
whom, personally, they had nothing whatever to do.

"People talk about unemployment!" he mused--"There's enough human
material in this one street to make wealth for themselves and the whole
community, yet they are idle by their own choice. If they had anything
to do they wouldn't be here!"

He laughed grimly,--the utter stodginess and stupidity of humanity EN
MASSE had of late struck him very forcibly, and he found every excuse
for the so-called incapacity of Governments, seeing the kind of folk
they are called upon to govern. He realised, as we all who read
history, must do, that we are no worse and no better than the peoples
of the past,--we are just as hypocritical, fraudulent, deceptive and
cruel as ever they were in legalised torture-times, and just as
ineradicably selfish. The pagans practised a religion which they did
not truly believe in, and so do we. All through the ages God has been
mocked;--all through the ages Divine vengeance has fallen on the
mockers and the mockery.

"And after all," thought Gwent--"wars are as necessary as plagues to
clear out a superabundant population, only most unfortunately Nature
adopts such recklessness in her methods that it most often happens the
best among us are taken, and the worst left. I tried to impress this on
Seaton, whose system of destruction would involve the good as well as
the bad--but these intellectual monsters of scientific appetite have no
conscience and no sentiment. To prove their theories they would
annihilate a continent."

Here a sudden ugly rush of the crowd, dangerous to both life and limb,
pushed him back against the church portal with the force of a tidal
wave,--it was not concerned with the bridal pair who had already driven
away in their automobile, nor with the wedding guests who were
following them to the great hotel where the bride's reception was
held--it was caused by the wild dash of half a dozen or so of unkempt
men and boys who tore a passage for themselves through the swaying mob
of sightseers, waving newspapers aloft and shouting loudly with voices
deep and shrill, clear and hoarse--

"Earthquake in California! Terri