to say, he glanced his eye up and down the
columns and paused wherever he caught words such as villains, titled scoundrels,
vampires, and so on. The expositions of doctrine he passed over; anything in the
nature of reasoning muddled him. From hearing them incessantly repeated he knew
the root theories of Socialism, and could himself hold forth on such texts as
the community of the means of production with considerable fluency and
vehemence; but in very fact he concerned himself as little with economic reforms
as with the principles of high art, and had as little genuine belief in the
promised revolution as in the immortality of his own soul. Had he been called
upon to suffer in any way for the cause of the people, it would speedily have
been demonstrated of what metal his enthusiasm was made.
    But there came a different kind of test. In the winter which followed upon
Mutimer's downfall, Nicholas Dabbs fell ill and died. He was married but had no
children, and his wife had been separated from him for several years. His
brother Daniel found himself in flourishing circumstances, with a public-house
which brought in profits of forty pounds a week. It goes without saying that
Daniel forthwith abandoned his daily labour and installed himself behind the
bar. The position suited him admirably; with a barmaid and a potman at his
orders (he paid them no penny more than the market rate), he stood about in his
shirt sleeves and gossiped from morn to midnight with such of his friends as had
leisure (and money) to spend in the temple of Bacchus. From the day that saw him
a licensed victualler he ceased to attend the Socialist meetings; it was, of
course, a sufficient explanation to point to the fact that he could not be in
two places at the same time, for Sunday evening is a season of brisk business in
the liquor trade. At first he was reticent on the subject of his old
convictions, but by degrees he found it possible to achieve the true innkeeper's
art, and speak freely in a way which could offend none of his customers. And he
believed himself every bit as downright and sincere as he had ever been.
    Comfortably established on a capitalist basis, his future assured because it
depended upon the signal vice of his class, it one day occurred to Daniel that
he ought to take to himself a helpmeet, a partner of his joys and sorrows. He
had thought of it from time to time during the past year, but only in a vague
way; he had even directed his eyes to the woman who might perchance be the