the like. And if in the end the
new ideas prevail? if the seigneurial rule is overthrown, what then?
You will have exchanged an aristocracy for a plutocracy. Is that worth
while? Do you 'think that under money-changers and slave-traders and
men who have waxed rich in other ways by the ignoble arts of buying
and selling, the lot of the people will be any better than under their
priests and nobles? Has it ever occurred to you, Philippe, what it
is that makes the rule of the nobles so intolerable? Acquisitiveness.
Acquisitiveness is the curse of mankind. And shall you expect less
acquisitiveness in men who have built themselves up by acquisitiveness?
Oh, I am ready to admit that the present government is execrable,
unjust, tyrannical--what you will; but I beg you to look ahead, and to
see that the government for which it is aimed at exchanging it may be
infinitely worse."

Philippe sat thoughtful a moment. Then he returned to the attack.

"You do not speak of the abuses, the horrible, intolerable abuses of
power under which we labour at present."

"Where there is power there will always be the abuse of it."

"Not if the tenure of power is dependent upon its equitable
administration."

"The tenure of power is power. We cannot dictate to those who hold it."

"The people can--the people in its might."

"Again I ask you, when you say the people do you mean the populace? You
do. What power can the populace wield? It can run wild. It can burn
and slay for a time. But enduring power it cannot wield, because power
demands qualities which the populace does not possess, or it would
not be populace. The inevitable, tragic corollary of civilization is
populace. For the rest, abuses can be corrected by equity; and equity,
if it is not found in the enlightened, is not to be found at all. M.
Necker is to set about correcting abuses, and limiting privileges. That
is decided. To that end the States General are to assemble."

"And a promising beginning we have made in Brittany, as Heaven hears
me!" cried Philippe.

"Pooh! That is nothing. Naturally the nobles will not yield without a
struggle. It is a futile and ridiculous struggle--but then... it is human
nature, I suppose, to be futile and ridiculous."

M. de Vilmorin became witheringly sarcastic. "Probably you will also
qualify the shooting of Mabey as futile and ridiculous. I should even be
prepared to hear you argue in defence of the Marquis de La Tour
d'Azyr that his game