He still held her hand.

‘Which would do the most good with this money, he or I?’

‘We cannot ask that question.’

’Yes, we can.  We ought to.  At all events, I ought to.  Think what it means.  In my hands the money is used for the good of a suffering class, for the good of the whole country in the end.  He would just spend it on himself, like other rich men.  It isn’t every day that a man of my principles gets the means of putting them into practice.  Eldon is well enough off; long ago he’s made up his mind to the loss of Wanley.  It’s like robbing poor people just to give money where it isn’t wanted.’

She withdrew her hand, saying coldly: 

’I can understand your looking at it in this way.  But we can’t help it.’

‘Why can’t we?’ His voice grew disagreeable in its effort to be insinuating.  ’It seems to me that we can and ought to help it.  It would be. quite different if you and I had just been enjoying ourselves and thinking of no one else.’  He thought it a skilful stroke to unite their names thus.  ’We haven’t done anything of the kind; we’ve denied ourselves all sorts of things just to be able to spend more on New Wanley.  You know what I’ve always said, that I hold the money in trust for the Union.  Isn’t it true?  I don’t feel justified in giving it up.  The end is too important.  The good of thousands, of hundreds of thousands, is at stake.’

Adela looked him in the face searchingly.

‘But how can we help it?  There is the will.’

Mutimer met her eyes.

‘No one knows of it but ourselves, Adela.’

It was not indignation that her look expressed, but at first a kind of shocked surprise and then profound trouble.  It was with difficulty that she found words.

‘You are not speaking in earnest?’

‘I am!’ he exclaimed, almost hopefully.  ’In downright earnest.  There’s nothing to be ashamed of.’  He said it because he felt that her gaze was breeding shame in him.  ’It isn’t for myself, it’s for the cause, for the good of my fellowmen.  Don’t say anything till you’ve thought.  Look, Adela, you’re not hardhearted, and you know how it used to pain you to read of the poor wretches who can’t earn enough to keep themselves alive.  It’s for their sake.  If they could be here and know of this, they’d go down on their knees to you.  You can’t rob them of a chance!  It’s like snatching a bit of bread out of their mouths when they’re dying of hunger.’

The fervour with which he pleaded went far to convince himself; for the moment he lost sight of everything but the necessity of persuading Adela, and his zeal could scarcely have been greater had he been actuated by the purest unselfishness.  He was speaking as Adela had never heard him speak, with modulations of the voice which were almost sentimental, like one pleading for love.  In his heart he despaired of removing her scruples, but he overcame this with vehement entreaty.  A true instinct forbade him to touch on her own interests; he had not lived so long with Adela without attaining some perception of the nobler ways of thought.  But as often as he raised his eyes to hers he saw the futility of all his words.  Her direct gaze at length brought him to unwilling silence.