, he had his own ax to grind. He
endeavored, therefore, to take the reference to Fay jocosely. "That
reminds me," he smiled, though the smile might have been a trifle
nervous, "that if you don't want to renew Fay's lease when it falls in,
I wish you'd make it over to me." Disconcerted by the look of amazement
his words called up, he hastened to add: "I'd take it on any terms you
please. You've only got to name them."

Masterman backed away to the large oblong library table strewn with
papers and magazines. He seemed to need it for support. His tones were
those of a man amazed to the point of awe. "What in the name of Heaven
do you want that for?"

Thor steadied his nerve by lighting a cigarette. "To give me a footing
in the village. I'm going into politics."

"O Lord!"

Thor hurried on. "Yes, I know how you feel. But to me it seems a duty."

"Seems a--_what_?"

The son felt obliged to be apologetic. "You see, father, so few men of
the old American stock are going into politics nowadays--"

"Well, why should they?"

"The country has to be governed."

"Lots of fools to do that who are no good for anything else. Why should
_you_ dirty your hands with it?"

"That isn't the way I look at it."

"It's the way you _will_ look at it when you know a little more about it
than you evidently do now. Of course, with your money you'll have a
right to fritter away your time in anything you please; but as your
father I feel that I ought to give you a word of warning. You wouldn't
be a Masterman if you didn't need it--on that score?"

"What score?"

"The score of being caught by every humbugging socialistic scheme--"

"I'm not a socialist, father."

"Well, what are you? I thought you were."

"I'm not now. I've passed that phase."

"That's something to the good, at any rate."

"With politics in this country as they are--and so many alien peoples to
be licked into shape--it's no use looking for the state to undertake
anything progressive for another two hundred years."

"Ah! Want something more rapid-firing."

"Want something immediate."

"And you've found it?"

"Only in the conviction that whatever's to be done must be done by the
individual. I've no theories any longer. I've finished with them all.
I'm driven back on the conclusion that if anything is to be accomplished
in the way of social betterment it must be by the man-to-man process in
one's own small sphere. If we could get that put into practice on a