are that they have at heart the
interests of the working classes; so has Earwaker, and he is far better
able than they to promote those interests. His duty is to apply their
money to the best use, morally speaking. If he were lukewarm in the
matter, I should be the first to advise his retirement; but this fight
is entirely congenial to him. I trust he will hold his own to the last
possible moment.'

'You must remember,' put in the journalist, with a look of amusement,
'that Peak has no sympathy with Radicalism.'

'I lament it, but that does not affect my argument. If you were a high
Tory, I should urge you just as strongly to assert yourself. Surely you
agree with this point of mine, Mr. Peak? You admit that a man must
develop whatever strength is in him.'

'I'm not at all sure of that.'

Malkin fixed himself sideways in the chair, and examined his
collocutor's face earnestly. He endeavoured to subdue his excitement to
the tone of courteous debate, but the words that at length escaped him
were humorously blunt.

'Then of what _are_ you sure?'

'Of nothing.'

'Now we touch bottom!' cried Malkin. 'Philosophically speaking, I agree
with you. But we have to live our lives, and I suppose we must direct
ourselves by some conscious principle.'

'I don't see the necessity,' Peak replied, still in an impassive tone.
'We may very well be guided by circumstances as they arise. To be sure,
there's a principle in that, but I take it you mean something
different.'

'Yes I do. I hold that the will must direct circumstances, not receive
its impulse from them. How, then, are we to be guided? What do you set
before yourself?'

'To get through life with as much satisfaction and as little pain as
possible.'

'You are a hedonist, then. Well and good! Then that is your conscious
principle'--

'No, it isn't.'

'How am I to understand you?'

'By recognising that a man's intellectual and moral principles as
likely as not tend to anything but his happiness.'

'I can't admit it!' exclaimed Malkin, leaping from his chair. 'What
_is_ happiness?'

'I don't know.'

'Earwaker, _what_ is happiness? What _is_ happiness?'

'I really don't know,' answered the journalist, mirthfully.

'This is trifling with a grave question. We all know perfectly well
that happiness is the conscious exertion of individual powers. Why is
there so much suffering under our present social system? Because the
majority of men are crushed to a dead lev