Since then all negotiations had been broken off.  The Clarion had gone steadily against the masters, against the award, against further arbitration.  The theory of the “living wage,” of which more recent days have heard so much, was preached in other terms, but with equal vigour; and the columns of the Clarion bore witness day by day in the long lists of subscriptions to the strike fund, to the effects of its eloquence on the hearts and pockets of Englishmen.

Meanwhile there were strange rumours abroad.  It was said that the trade was really on the eve of a complete and striking revolution in its whole conditions—­could this labour war be only cleared out of the way.  The smaller employers had been for long on the verge of ruin; and the larger men, so report had it, were scheming a syndicate on the American plan to embrace the whole industry, cut down the costs of production, and regulate the output.

But for this large capital would be wanted.  Could capital be got?  The state of things in the trade, according to the employers, had been deplorable for years; a large part of the market had been definitely forfeited, so they declared, for good, to Germany and Belgium.  It would take years before even a powerful syndicate could work itself into a thoroughly sound condition.  Let the men accept the award of the conciliation board; let there be some stable and reasonable prospect of peace between masters and men, say, for a couple of years; and a certain group of bankers would come forward; and all would be well.  The men under the syndicate would in time get more than their old wage. But the award first; otherwise the plan dropped, and the industry must go its own way to perdition.

“‘Will you walk into my parlour?’” said Wharton, scornfully, to the young Conservative member who, with a purpose, was explaining these things to him in the library of the House of Commons, “the merest trap! and, of course, the men will see it so.  Who is to guarantee them even the carrying through, much less the success, of your precious syndicate?  And, in return for your misty millennium two years hence, the men are to join at once in putting the employers in a stronger position than ever?  Thank you!  The ‘rent of ability’ in the present state of things is, no doubt, large.  But in this particular case the Clarion will go on doing its best—­I promise you—­to nibble some of it away!”

The Conservative member rose in indignation.

“I should be sorry to have as many starving people on my conscience as you’ll have before long!” he said as he took up his papers.

At that moment Denny’s rotund and square-headed figure passed along the corridor, to which the library door stood open.

“Well, if I thrive upon it as well as Denny does, I shall do!” returned Wharton, with his usual caustic good-humour, as his companion departed.

And it delighted him to think as he walked home that Denny, who had again of late made himself particularly obnoxious in the House of Commons, on two or three occasions, to the owner of the Clarion, had probably instigated the quasi-overtures he had just rejected, and must be by now aware of their result.