and dour, uncompromising aspect.  Dale came late and he, too, greeted Maraton with bluff unfriendliness.  Borden’s attitude was non-committal.  Weavel shook hands, but his frown and manner were portentous.  Culvain, the diplomat of the party, was quiet and reserved.  David Ross alone had never lost his attitude of unwavering fidelity.  He sat at Maraton’s left hand, his head a little drooped, his eyes almost hidden beneath his shaggy grey eyebrows, his lower lip protuberant.  He had, somehow, the air of a guarding dog, ready to spring into bitter words if his master were touched.

“Gentlemen,” Maraton began, when at last they were all assembled, “I have asked you, the committee who were appointed to meet me on my arrival England, to meet me once more here on the eve of the reopening of Parliament.”

There was a grim silence.  No one spoke.  Their general attitude was one of suspicious waiting.

“You all know,” Maraton went on, “with what ideas I first came to England.  I found, however, that circumstances here were in many respects different from anything I had imagined.  You all know that I modified my plans.  I decided to adopt a middle course.”

“A seat in Parliament,” Graveling muttered, “and a place at the Prime Minister’s dinner table.”

“For some reason or other,” Maraton continued, unruffled, “my coming into Parliament seemed obnoxious to Mr. Dale and most of you.  I decided in favour of that course, however, because the offer made me by Mr. Foley was one which, in the interests of the people, I could not refuse.  Mr. Foley has done his best to keep to the terms of his compact with me.  Perhaps I ought to say that he has kept to it.  The successful termination of the Lancashire strike is due entirely to his efforts.  The prolongation of the Sheffield strike is in no way his fault.  The blind stupidity of the masters was too much even for him.  The position has developed very much as I feared it might.  You cannot make employers see reason by Act of Parliament.  Mr. Foley kept his word.  He has been on the side of the men throughout this struggle.  He has used every atom of influence he possesses to compel the employers to give in.  Temporarily he has failed—­only temporarily, mind, for a Bill will be introduced into Parliament during this session which will very much alter the position of the employers.  But this partial failure has convinced me of one thing.  This is too law-abiding a country for compromises.  For the last six weeks I have been travelling on the Continent.  I have realised how splendidly Labour has emancipated itself there compared to its slow progress in this country.  From town to town in northern Europe I passed, and found the great industries of the various districts in the hands of a composite body of men, embracing the boy learning the simplest machine and the financier in the office, every man there working like a single part of one huge machine, each for the profit of the whole.  A genuine scheme of profit-sharing is there being successfully carried out.  It is owing to this visit, and the convictions which have come to me from the same, that I have called you together to-day.”