right and left, and if we
stood back you know as well as I do that everything would go to pot.
And if we let the reformers have their way the country would be bedlam.
We'd have anarchy and bloodshed, revolution, and the people would be
calling us, the strong men, back in no time. You can't change human
nature. And we have a sense of responsibility--we support law and order
and the Church, and found institutions, and give millions away in
charity."

The big lawyer listened to this somewhat fervent defence of his order
with an amused smile, nodding his head slightly from side to side.

"If you don't believe in it," demanded Mr. Plimpton, why the deuce don't
you drop it?"

"It's because of my loyalty," said Langmaid. "I wouldn't desert my pals.
I couldn't bear, Wallis, to see you go to the guillotine without me."

Mr. Plimpton became unpleasantly silent.

"Well, you may think it's a joke," he resumed, after a moment, "but there
will be a guillotine if we don't look out. That confounded parson is
getting ready to spring something, and I'm going to give Mr. Parr a tip.
He'll know how to handle him. He doesn't talk much, but I've got an
idea, from one or two things he let drop, that he's a little suspicious
of a change in Hodder. But he ought to be waived."

"You're in no condition to talk to Mr. Parr, or to anyone else, except
your wife, Walks," Langmaid said. "You'd better go home, and let me see
Mr. Parr. I'm responsible for Mr. Hodder, anyway."

"All right," Mr. Plimpton agreed, as though he had gained some shred of
comfort from this thought. "I guess you're in worse than any of us."

THE INSIDE OF THE CUP

By Winston Churchill

Volume 6.

XX. THE ARRAIGNMENT
XXI. ALISON GOES TO CHURCH
XXII. WHICH SAY TO THE SEERS, SEE NOT!

CHAPTER XX

THE ARRAIGNMENT

I

Looking backward, Hodder perceived that he had really come to the
momentous decision of remaining at St. John's in the twilight of an
evening when, on returning home from seeing Kate Marcy at Mr. Bentley's
he had entered the darkening church. It was then that his mission had
appeared to him as a vision. Every day, afterward, his sense and
knowledge of this mission had grown stronger.

To his mind, not the least of the trials it was to impose upon him, and
one which would have to be dealt with shortly, was a necessary talk with
his assistant, McCrae. If their relationship had from the beginning been
unusual and unsatis