‘Thinking it so clearly must be half doing it,’ said Annabel.

Egremont replied to her with a clear regard.

‘But the details,’ Mr. Newthorpe remarked.  ’Are you going to make Lambeth your field?’

’Yes, Lambeth.  I have a natural connection with the place and my name may be of some service to me there; I don’t think it is of evil odour with the workmen.  My project is to begin with lectures.  Reserve your judgment; I have no intention of standing forth as an apostle; all I mean to do at first is to offer a free course of lectures on a period of English literature.  I shall not throw open my doors to all and sundry, but specially invite a certain small number of men, whom I shall be at some pains to choose.  We have at the works a foreman named Bower; I have known him, in a way, for years, and I believe he is an intelligent man.  Him I shall make use of, telling him nothing of my wider aims, but simply getting him to discover for me the dozen or so of men who would be likely to care for my lectures.  By-the-by, the man of whom I was speaking, the father of Mrs. Ormonde’s patient, lives in Lambeth; I shall certainly make an effort to draw him into the net!’

‘I shall be curious to hear more of him,’ said Mr. Newthorpe.  ’And you use English literature to tune the minds of your hearers?’

’That is my thought.  I have spent my month in Jersey in preparing a couple of introductory lectures.  It seems to me that if I can get them to understand what is meant by love of literature, pure and simple, without a thought of political or social purpose—­ especially without a thought of cash profit, which is so disastrously blended with what little knowledge they acquire—­I shall be on the way to founding my club of social reformers.  I shall be most careful not to alarm them with hints that I mean more than I say.  Here arc certain interesting English books; let us see what they are about, who wrote them, and why they are deemed excellent.  That is our position.  These men must get on a friendly footing with me.  Little by little I shall talk with them more familiarly, try to understand each one.  Success depends upon my personal influence.  I may find that it is inadequate, yet I have hope.  Naturally, I have points of contact with the working class which are lacking to most educated men; a little chance, and I should myself have been a mechanic or something of the kind.  This may make itself felt; I believe it will.’

Night was falling.  The last hue of sunset had died from the swarth hills, and in the east were pale points of starlight.

‘I think you and I must go in, Paula,’ said Annabel, when there had been silence for a little.

Paula rose without speaking, but as she was about to enter the house she turned back and said to Egremont: 

’I get tired so soon, being so much in the open air.  I’d better say good-night.’

Her uncle, when he held her hand, stroked it affectionately.  He often laughed at the child’s manifold follies, but her prettiness and the naivete which sweetened her inbred artificiality had won his liking.  Much as it would have astonished Paula had she known it, his feeling was for the most part one of pity.