at sort of thing. You're too
used to it for that."

He would have liked a less cautious acceptance of his assurances than
this--but after all, one did not look to Louisa for enthusiasms. The
depth of feeling she had disclosed on this subject of London's poor
still astonished him, but principally now because of its unlikely
source. If she had been notoriously of an altruistic and free-handed
disposition, he could have understood it. But she had been always the
hard, dry, unemotional one; by comparison with her, he felt himself
to be a volatile and even sentimental person. If she had such views
as these, it became clear to him that his own views were even much
advanced.

"It's a tremendous subject," he said, with loose largeness of manner.
"Only a man who works hard at it can realize how complicated it is. The
only way is to start with the understanding that something is going
to be done. No matter how many difficulties there are in the way,
SOMETHING'S GOING TO BE DONE! If a strong man starts out with that, why
then he can fight his way through, and push the difficulties aside or
bend them to suit his purpose, and accomplish something."

Mrs. Dabney, listening to this, found nothing in it to quarrel with--yet
somehow remained, if not skeptical, then passively unconvinced. "What
are your plans?" she asked him.

"Oh, it's too soon to formulate anything," he told her, with prepared
readiness. "It isn't a thing to rush into in a hurry, with half baked
theories and limited information. Great results, permanent results, are
never obtained that way."

"I hope it isn't any Peabody model-dwelling thing."

"Oh, nothing like it in the least," he assured her, and made a mental
note to find out what it was she had referred to.

"The Lord-Rowton houses are better, they say," she went on, "but it
seems to me that the real thing is that there shouldn't be all this
immense number of people with only fourpence or fivepence in their
pocket. That's where the real mischief lies."

He nodded comprehendingly, but hesitated over further words. Then
something occurred to him. "Look here!" he said. "If you're as keen
about all this, are you game to give up this footling old shop, and
devote your time to carrying out my plans, when I've licked 'em into
shape?"

She began shaking her head, but then something seemed also to occur to
her. "It'll be time enough to settle that when we get to it, won't it?"
she observed.

"No--you've got t