 indignation, partly
in consequence of slowly growing personal feeling against the Mutimers, had
certainly supplied Richard's enemies with corroborative details. Under ordinary
circumstances Mutimer's change of fortune would have seemed to his old mates a
sufficient explanation of his behaviour to Emma Vine; they certainly would not
have gone out of their way to condemn him. But Richard was by this time vastly
unpopular with most of those who had once glorified him. Envy had had time to
grow, and was assisted by Richard's avoidance of personal contact with his
Hoxton friends. When they spoke of him now it was with sneers and sarcasms. Some
one had confidently asserted that the so-called Socialistic enterprise at Wanley
was a mere pretence, that Mutimer was making money just like any other
capitalist, and the leaguers of Hoxton firmly believed this. They encouraged one
another to positive hatred of the working man who had suddenly become wealthy;
his name stank in their nostrils. This, in a great measure, explained Comrade
Roodhouse's success; personal feeling is almost always the spring of public
action among the uneducated. In the excitement of the schism a few of the more
energetic spirits had determined to drag Richard's domestic concerns into
publicity. They suddenly became aware that private morality was at the root of
the general good; they urged each other to righteous indignation in a matter for
which they did not really care two straws. Thus Mr. Cowes's question was
received with vociferous approval. Those present who did not understand the
allusion were quickly enlightened by their neighbours. A crowd of Englishmen
working itself into a moral rage is as glorious a spectacle as the world can
show. Not one of these men but heartily believed himself justified in reviling
the traitor to his class, the betrayer of confiding innocence. Remember, too,
how it facilitates speech to have a concrete topic on which to enlarge; in this
matter a West End drawing-room and the Hoxton coffee-shop are akin. Regularity
of procedure was at an end; question grew to debate, and debate was riot. Mr.
Cullen succeeded Mr. Cowes and roared himself hoarse, defying the feeble
protests of the chairman. He abandoned mere allusion, and rejoiced the meeting
by declaring names. His example was followed by those who succeeded him.
    Little did Emma think, as she sat working, Sunday though it was, in her poor
room, that her sorrows were being blared forth to a gross assembly in venomous
accusation against the man who had wronged her. We can imagine that the
knowledge would not greatly have soothed her.
    Comrade Roodhouse at length
