Nevertheless, when he saw his house shining in a row of similar houses, he realised that their attitude was wiser than his.  If he was to be a success as a breadwinner he must wage a sterner war against these happy, lovable people.  It was easy, he had been long enough in the force to know how easy, to get cases.  An intolerant manner, a little provocative harshness, and the thing was done.  Yet with all his heart he admired the poor for their resentful independence of spirit.  To him this had always been the supreme quality of the English character; how could he make use of it to fill English gaols?

He opened the door of his house, with a sigh on his lips.  There came forth the merry shouting of his children.

II

Above the telephone wires the stars dipped at anchor in the cloudless sky.  Down below, in one of the dark, empty streets, Police-constable Bennett turned the handles of doors and tested the fastenings of windows, with a complete scepticism as to the value of his labours.  Gradually, he was coming to see that he was not one of the few who are born to rule—­to control—­their simple neighbours, ambitious only for breath.  Where, if he had possessed this mission, he would have been eager to punish, he now felt no more than a sympathy that charged him with some responsibility for the sins of others.  He shared the uneasy conviction of the multitude that human justice, as interpreted by the inspired minority, is more than a little unjust.  The very unpopularity with which his uniform endowed him seemed to him to express a severe criticism of the system of which he was an unwilling supporter.  He wished these people to regard him as a kind of official friend, to advise and settle differences; yet, shrewder than he, they considered him as an enemy, who lived on their mistakes and the collapse of their social relationships.

There remained his duty to his wife and children, and this rendered the problem infinitely perplexing.

Why should he punish others because of his love for his children; or, again, why should his children suffer for his scruples?  Yet it was clear that, unless fortune permitted him to accomplish some notable yet honourable arrest, he would either have to cheat and tyrannise with his colleagues or leave the force.  And what employment is available for a discharged policeman?

As he went systematically from house to house the consideration of these things marred the normal progress of his dreams.  Conscious as he was of the stars and the great widths of heaven that made the world so small, he nevertheless felt that his love for his family and the wider love that determined his honour were somehow intimately connected with this greatness of the universe rather than with the world of little streets and little motives, and so were not lightly to be put aside.  Yet, how can one measure one love against another when all are true?