&c.; and he said many cordial and wise-sounding things in
praise of a progress which should go safely and wisely from step to
step, and run no risks of dangerous reaction. But the assumptions on
which, as she told herself rebelliously, it all went--that the rich and
the educated must rule, and the poor obey; that existing classes and
rights, the forces of individualism and competition, must and would go
on pretty much as they were; that great houses and great people, the
English land and game system, and all the rest of our odious class
paraphernalia were in the order of the universe; these ideas, conceived
as the furniture of Aldous's mind, threw her again into a ferment of
passionate opposition. And when the noble baronet in the chair--to her
eye, a pompous, frock-coated stick, sacrificing his after-dinner sleep
for once, that he might the more effectually secure it in the
future--proposed a vote of confidence in the Conservative candidate;
when the vote was carried with much cheering and rattling of feet; when
the Primrose Dames on the platform smiled graciously down upon the
meeting as one smiles at good children in their moments of pretty
behaviour; and when, finally, scores of toil-stained labourers, young
and old, went up to have a word and a hand-shake with "Muster Raeburn,"
Marcella held herself aloof and cold, with a look that threatened
sarcasm should she be spoken to. Miss Raeburn, glancing furtively round
at her, was outraged anew by her expression.

"She will be a thorn in all our sides," thought that lady. "Aldous is a
fool!--a poor dear noble misguided fool!"

Then on the way home, she and Aldous drove together. Marcella tried to
argue, grew vehement, and said bitter things for the sake of victory,
till at last Aldous, tired, worried, and deeply wounded, could bear it
no longer.

"Let it be, dear, let it be!" he entreated, snatching at her hand as
they rolled along through a stormy night. "We grope in a dark world--you
see some points of light in it, I see others--won't you give me credit
for doing what I can--seeing what I can? I am sure--_sure_--you will
find it easier to bear with differences when we are quite together--when
there are no longer all these hateful duties and engagements--and
persons--between us."

"Persons! I don't know what you mean!" said Marcella.

Aldous only just restrained himself in time. Out of sheer fatigue and
slackness of nerve he had been all but betrayed into some ang