so when it gives pure enjoyment; that is to say, when it is
embraced instinctively. Shall I frown on a man because he cannot find his bliss
in altruism and bid him perish to make room for a being more perfect? What right
have we to live thus in the far-off future? Thinking in this way, I have a
profound dislike and distrust of this same progress. Take one feature of it -
universal education. That, I believe, works most patently for the growing misery
I speak of. Its results affect all classes, and all for the worse. I said that I
used to have a very bleeding of the heart for the half-clothed and quarter-fed
hangers-on to civilisation; I think far less of them now than of another class
in appearance much better off. It is a class created by the mania of education,
and it consists of those unhappy men and women whom unspeakable cruelty endows
with intellectual needs whilst refusing them the sustenance they are taught to
crave. Another generation, and this class will be terribly extended, its
existence blighting the whole social state. Every one of these poor creatures
has a right to curse the work of those who clamour progress, and pose as
benefactors of their race.«
    »All that strikes me as very good and true,« remarked Hubert; »but can it be
helped? Or do you refuse to believe in the modern conception of laws ruling
social development?«
    »I wish I could do so. No; when I spoke of the right to curse, I should have
said, from their point of view. In truth, I fear we must accept progress. But I
cannot rejoice in it; I will even do what little I can in my own corner to
support the old order of things. You may be aware that I was on very friendly
terms with the Mutimers, that I even seemed to encourage them in their
Socialism. Yes, and because I felt that in that way I could best discharge my
duty. What I really encouraged was sympathy and humanity. When Mutimer came
asking me to be present at his meetings I plainly refused. To have held apart
from him and his wife would have been as wrong in me as to publicly countenance
their politics.«
    Mr. Wyvern was on the point of referring to his private reasons for
befriending Adela, but checked himself.
    »What I made no secret of approving was their substitution of human
relations between employer and employed for the detestable nexus of cash
payment, as Carlyle calls it. That is only a return to the good