re every humanising influence is contemptuously
disregarded. I know, of course, that the trader may have his quiet
home, where art and science and humanity are the first considerations;
but the _mass_ of traders, corporate and victorious, crush all such
things beneath their heels. Take your stand (or try to do so) anywhere
near the Exchange; the hustling and jolting to which you are exposed
represents the very spirit of the life about you. Whatever is gentle
and kindly and meditative must here go to the wall--trampled,
spattered, ridiculed. Here the average man has it all his own way--a
gross utilitarian power.'

'Yes, I can see that,' Sidwell replied, thoughtfully. 'And perhaps it
also represents the triumphant forces of our time.'

He looked keenly at her, with a smile of delight.

'That also! The power which centres in the world's
money-markets--plutocracy.'

In conversing with Sidwell, he had never before found an opportunity of
uttering his vehement prejudices. The gentler side of his character had
sometimes expressed itself, but those impulses which were vastly more
significant lay hidden beneath the dissimulation he consistently
practised. For the first time he was able to look into Sidwell's face
with honest directness, and what he saw there strengthened his
determination to talk on with the same freedom.

'You don't believe, then,' said Sidwell, 'that democracy is the proper
name for the state into which we are passing?'

'Only if one can understand democracy as the opening of social
privileges to free competition amongst men of trade. And social
privilege is everything; home politics refer to nothing else.'

Fanny, true to the ingenuous principle of her years, put a direct
question:

'Do you approve of real democracy, Mr. Peak?'

He answered with another question:

'Have you read the "Life of Phokion" in Plutarch?'

'No, I'm sorry to say.'

'There's a story about him which I have enjoyed since I was your age.
Phokion was once delivering a public speech, and at a certain point the
majority of his hearers broke into applause; whereupon he turned to
certain of his friends who stood near and asked, "What have I said
amiss?"'

Fanny laughed.

'Then you despise public opinion?'

'With heart and soul!'

It was to Sidwell that he directed the reply. Though overcome by the
joy of such an utterance, he felt that, considering the opinions and
position of Buckland Warricombe, he was perhaps guilty of