ument
and entreaty, though when the completeness of the retreat resolved upon
had been disclosed to him, the feeling roused in him was so fierce that
he could barely maintain his composure. He had been living among scenes
of starvation and endurance, which, to his mind, had all the character
of martyrdom. These men and women were struggling for two objects--the
power to live more humanly, and the free right of combination--to both
of which, if need were, he would have given his own life to help them
without an instant's hesitation. Behind his blinking manner he saw
everything with the idealist's intensity, the reformer's passion. To be
fair to an employer was not in his power. To spend his last breath, were
it called for, in the attempt to succour the working-man against his
capitalist oppressors, would have seemed to him the merest matter of
course.

And his mental acuteness was quite equal to his enthusiasm, and far more
evident. In his talk with Wharton, he for a long time avoided, as
before, out of a certain inner disdain, the smallest touch of sentiment.
He pointed out--what, indeed, Wharton well knew--that the next two or
three weeks of the strike would be the most critical period in its
history; that, if the work-people could only be carried through them,
they were almost sure of victory. He gave his own reasons for believing
that the employers could ultimately be coerced, he offered proof of
yielding among them, proof also that the better men in their ranks were
fully alive to and ashamed of the condition of the workers. As to the
Syndicate, he saw no objection to it, _provided_ the workers' claims
were first admitted. Otherwise it would only prove a more powerful
engine of oppression.

Wharton's arguments may perhaps be left to the imagination. He would
have liked simply to play the proprietor and the master--to say, "This
is my decision, those are my terms--take my work or leave it." But
Craven was Miss Boyce's friend; he was also a Venturist. Chafing under
both facts, Wharton found that he must state his case.

And he did state it with his usual ability. He laid great stress on
"information from a private source which I cannot disregard," to the
effect that, if the resistance went on, the trade would be broken up;
that several of the largest employers were on the point of making
arrangements for Italian factories.

"I know," he said finally, "that but for the _Clarion_ the strike would
drop. Well! I have