t.'

'Yes, I feel that very strongly,' said Dalmaine, his masculine accent
more masculine than ever after the plaintive piping. 'I even fear that
Mr. Egremont is doing wrong in making his lectures free. We may be sure
they are well worth paying to hear, and it's an axiom in all dealing
with the working class that they will never value anything that they
don't pay for.'

'Oh, but Mr. Dalmaine,' protested Paula, 'you couldn't ask Mr. Egremont
to take money at the door!'

'It sounds shocking, Miss Tyrrell, but if Mr. Egremont stands before
them as a teacher, he ought to charge for his lessons. I assure you
they would put a far higher value on his lectures. I grieve to hear
that his class has fallen off. I could have foreseen that. The basis is
not sound. To put it in plain, even coarse, language, all social reform
must be undertaken on strictly commercial principles.'

'How I should like to hear you say that to Mr. Egremont!' remarked
Paula. 'Oh, his face!'

'Mr. Egremont is an idealist,' said Mrs. Tyrrell, smiling.

'Surely the very _last_ kind of person to attempt social reform!'
exclaimed the young married lady.

The conversation drew off into other channels. Mr. Dalmaine was
supplied with the clearest opinions on every topic, and he had a way of
delivering them which was most effective with persons of Mrs. Tyrrell's
composition. In everything he affected sobriety. If he had to express a
severe judgment, it was done with gentlemanly regret. If he commended
anything, he did so with a judicial air. In fact, it would not have
been easy to imagine Mr. Dalmaine speaking with an outburst of natural
fervour on any topic whatsoever. His view was the view of common sense,
and he enunciated the barrenest convictions in a tone which would have
suited profound originality.

A week later there was a dinner party at the Tyrrells, and Egremont was
among the bidden. He had persisted in his tendency to hold aloof from
general society, in spite of many warnings from Mrs. Ormonde, but he
could not, short of ingratitude, wholly absent himself from his friends
at Lancaster Gate. Mrs. Tyrrell was no exception to the rule in her
attitude to Egremont; as did all matronly ladies, she held him in very
warm liking, and sincerely hoped that a young man so admirably fitted
for the refinements of social life would in time get rid of his
extravagant idealism. A little of that was graceful; Society was
beginning to view it with favour when c