re of my respect
than the working man who struggles to a fair measure of education.'

Earwaker would have liked to comment on this with remarks personal to
the speaker, but he feared to do so. His silence, however, was eloquent
to Peak, who resumed brusquely.

'I am not myself well-born,--though if my parents could have come into
wealth early in their lives, perhaps I might reasonably have called
myself so. All sorts of arguments can be brought against my prejudice,
but the prejudice is ineradicable. I respect hereditary social
standing, independently of the individual's qualities. There's nothing
of the flunkey in this, or I greatly deceive myself. Birth in a sphere
of refinement is desirable and respectable; it saves one, absolutely,
from many forms of coarseness. The masses are not only fools, but very
near the brutes. Yes, they can send forth fine individuals--but remain
base. I don't deny the possibility of social advance; I only say that
at present the lower classes are always disagreeable, often repulsive,
sometimes hateful.'

'I could apply that to the classes above them.'

'Well, I can't. But I am quite ready to admit that there are all sorts
of inconsistencies in me. Now, the other day I was reading Burns, and I
couldn't describe what exaltation all at once possessed me in the
thought that a ploughman had so glorified a servant-girl that together
they shine in the highest heaven, far above all the monarchs of earth.
This came upon me with a rush--a very rare emotion. Wasn't that
democratic?'

He inquired dubiously, and Earwaker for a moment had no reply but his
familiar 'M--m--m!'

'No, it was not democratic,' the journalist decided at length; 'it was
pride of intellect.'

'Think so? Then look here. If it happens that a whining wretch stops me
in the street to beg, what do you suppose is my feeling? I am ashamed
in the sense of my own prosperity. I can't look him in the face. If I
yielded to my natural impulse, I should cry out, "Strike me! spit at
me! show you hate me!--anything but that terrible humiliation of
yourself before me!" That's how I feel. The abasement of which _he_
isn't sensible affects _me_ on his behalf. I give money with what
delicacy I can. If I am obliged to refuse, I mutter apologies and hurry
away with burning cheeks. What does that mean?'

Earwaker regarded him curiously.

'That is mere fineness of humanity.'

'Perhaps moral weakness?'

'I don't care for the scalpel of the