u pander to the popular craving
because it is honest enough in itself and is for you the stepping-stone
to worthier work."

Lewis shook his head dismally.

"I haven't the knack of it. I seem to stand beside myself and jeer all
the while. Besides, it would be opposing complete sincerity with a very
shady substitute. That man Stocks is at least an honest fool. I met
him the other day after he had been talking some atrocious nonsense. I
asked him as a joke how he could be such a humbug, and he told me quite
honestly that he believed every word; so, of course, I apologized. He
was attacking you people on your foreign policy, and he pulled out a New
Testament and said, 'What do I read here?' It went down with many
people, but the thing took away my breath."

His companion looked perplexedly at the speaker. "You have had the
wrong kind of education, Lewie. You have always been the spoiled child,
and easily and half-unconsciously you have mastered things which the
self-made man has to struggle towards with a painful conscious effort.
The result is that you are a highly cultured man without any crudeness
or hysteria, while the other people see things in the wrong perspective
and run their heads against walls and make themselves miserable. You
gain a lot, but you miss one thing. You know nothing of the heart of
the crowd. Oh, I don't mean the people about Etterick. They are your
own folk, and the whole air of the place is semi-feudal. But the
weavers and artisans of the towns and the ordinary farm workers--what do
you know of them? Your precious theories are so much wind in their
ears. They want the practical, the blatantly obvious, spiced with a
little emotion. Stocks knows their demands. He began among them, and
at present he is but one remove from them. A garbled quotation from the
Scriptures or an appeal to their domestic affections is the very thing
required. Moreover, the man understands an audience. He can bully it,
you know; put on airs of sham independence to cover his real obeisance;
while you are polite and deferent to hide your very obvious scorn."

"Do you know, Tommy, I'm a coward," Lewis broke in. "I can't face the
people. When I see a crowd of upturned faces, crass, ignorant,
unwholesome many of them, I begin to despair. I cannot begin to explain
things from the beginning; besides, they would not understand me if I
did. I feel I have nothing in common with them. They lead, most of
them, unhealthy indoor lives