A hand was laid gently upon his shoulder.  Through blinding tears he discerned Mr. Wyvern’s solemn countenance.  He resisted the efforts to draw him away, but was at length persuaded.

Early in the evening he fell asleep, lying dressed upon his bed, and the sleep lasted till midnight.  Then he left his room, and descended the stairs, for the lower part of the house was still lighted.  In the hall Mr. Wyvern met him.

‘Let us go into the library,’ he said to the clergyman.  ’I want to talk to you.’

He had resumed his ordinary manner.  Without mention of his mother, he began at once to speak of the rioters.

’They were led by that man Redgrave; there can be no doubt of that.  I shall go to Agworth at once and set the police at work.’

‘I have already done that,’ replied the vicar.  ’Three fellows have been arrested in Agworth.’

‘New Wanley men?’

‘Yes; but Redgrave is not one of them.’

‘He shall be caught, though!’

Hubert appeared to have forgotten everything but his desire of revenge.  It supported him through the wretched days that followed—­even at the funeral his face was hard-set and his eyes dry.  But in spite of every effort it was impossible to adduce evidence against any but the three men who had loitered drinking in Agworth.  Redgrave came forward voluntarily and proved an alibi; he was vastly indignant at the charge brought against him, declared that window-breaking was not his business, and that had he been on the spot he should have used all his influence to prevent such contemptible doings.  He held a meeting in Belwick of all the New Wanleyers he could gather together:  those who came repudiated the outrage as useless and unworthy.  On the whole, it seemed probable that only a handful of good-for-nothings had been concerned in the affair, probably men who had been loafing in the Belwick public-houses, indisposed to look for work.  The ‘Fiery Cross’ and the ‘Tocsin’ commented on the event in their respective ways.  The latter organ thought that an occasional demonstration of this kind was not amiss; it was a pity that apparently innocent individuals should suffer (an allusion to the death of Mrs. Eldon); but, after all, what member of the moneyed classes was in reality innocent?  An article on the subject in the ‘Fiery Cross’ was signed ’Richard Mutimer.’  It breathed righteous indignation and called upon all true Socialists to make it known that they pursued their ends in far other ways than by the gratification of petty malice.  A copy of this paper reached Wanley Manor.  Hubert glanced over it.

It lay by him when he received a visit from Mr. Wyvern the same evening.

‘How is it to be explained,’ he asked; ’a man like Westlake mixing himself up with this crew?’

‘Do you know him personally?’ the vicar inquired.

’I have met him.  But I have seen more of Mrs. Westlake.  She is a tenth muse, the muse of lyrical Socialism.  From which of them the impulse came I have no means of knowing, but surely it must have been from her.  In her case I can understand it; she lives in an asthetic reverie; she idealises everything.  Naturally she knows nothing whatever of real life.  She is one of the most interesting women I ever met, but I should say that her influence on Westlake has been deplorable.’