Adela looked him in the face.

‘And it is you they have to thank for all this?’

‘Well, I don’t want any credit for it,’ Mutimer replied, waving his hand.  ’What would you think of me if I worked them like niggers and just enjoyed myself on the profits?  That’s what the capitalists do.’

’I think you are doing more than most men would.  There is only one thing.’

She dropped her voice.

‘What’s that, Adela?’

‘I’ll speak of it some other time.’

’I know what you mean.  You’re sorry I’ve got no religion.  Ay, but I have!  There’s my religion, down there in New Wanley.  I’m saving men and women and children from hunger and cold and the lives of brute beasts.  I teach them to live honestly and soberly.  There’s no public-house in New Wanley, and there won’t be.’ (It just flashed across Adela’s mind that Mutimer drank wine himself.) ’There’s no bad language if I can help it.  The children ’ll be brought up to respect the human nature that’s in them, to honour their parents, and act justly and kindly to all they have dealings with.  Isn’t there a good deal of religion in that, Adela?’

‘Yes, but not all.  Not the most important part’

’Well, as you say, we’ll talk over that some other time.  And now I’m sorry I can’t stay any longer.  I’ve twenty or thirty letters to get written before post-time.’

Adela rose as he did.

‘If there’s ever anything I can do to help you,’ she said modestly, ‘you will not fail to ask me?’

’That I won’t What I want you to do now is to read what I’ve marked in those books.  You mustn’t tire your eyes, you know; there’s plenty of time.’

’I will read all you wish me to, and think over it as much as I can.’

’Then you’re a right-down good girl, and if I don’t think myself a lucky man, I ought to.’

He left her trembling with a strange new emotion, the begin fling of a self-conscious zeal, an enthusiasm forced into being like a hothouse flower.  It made her cheeks burn; she could not rest till her study had commenced.

Richard had written to his sister, saying that he wanted her, that she must come at once.  To Alice his thoughts had been long turning; now that the time for action had arrived, it was to her that he trusted for aid.  Things he would find it impossible to do himself, Alice might do for him.  He did not doubt his power of persuading her.  With Alice principle would stand second to his advantage.  He had hard things to ask of her, but the case was a desperate one, and she would endure the unpleasantness for his sake.  He blessed her in anticipation.

Alice received the letter summoning her on Monday morning.  Richard himself was expected in Highbury; expected, too, at a sad little house in Hoxton; for he had constantly promised to spend Christmas with his friends.  The present letter did not say that he would not come, only that he wanted his sister immediately.  She was to bring her best dress for wear when she arrived.  He told her the train she was to take on Tuesday morning.