‘I had it in mind to write to you,’ said the latter.  ’Since we parted down yonder I have been running about a good deal, with few days in town.  Do you often read here?’

‘Generally on Saturday afternoon.’

Buckland glanced at the open volume, and caught a heading, ‘Apologetic Theology.’

‘Still at the works?’

‘Yes; I shall be there till Christmas—­no longer.’

’Are you by chance disengaged to-morrow?  Could you dine with me?  I shall be alone; perhaps you don’t mind that?  We could exchange views on “fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute".’

Godwin accepted the invitation, and Warricombe, unable to linger, took leave of him.

They met the next evening in Buckland’s rooms, not far from the Houses of Parliament.  Commonplace comfort was the note of these quarters.  Peak wondered that a man who had it in his power to surround himself with evidences of taste should be content to dwell thus.  His host seemed to detect this thought in the glances Godwin cast about him.

’Nothing but a pied-a-terre.  I have been here three or four years, but I don’t think of it as a home.  I suppose I shall settle somewhere before long:  yet, on the whole, what does it matter where one lives?  There’s something in the atmosphere of our time that makes one indisposed to strike roots in the old way.  Who knows how long there’ll be such a thing as real property?  We are getting to think of ourselves as lodgers; it’s as well to be indifferent about a notice to quit.’

‘Many people would still make a good fight for the old homes,’ replied Peak.

’Yes; I daresay I should myself, if I were a family man.  A wife and children are strong persuasions to conservatism.  In those who have anything, that’s to say.  Let the families who have nothing learn how they stand in point of numbers, and we shall see what we shall see.’

‘And you are doing your best to teach them that.’

Buckland smiled.

’A few other things at the same time.  One isn’t necessarily an anarchist, you know.’

’What enormous faith you must have in the metaphysical powers of the multitude!’

’Trenchant!  But say, rather, in the universal self-interest.  That’s the trait of human nature which we have in mind when we speak of enlightenment.  The aim of practical Radicalism is to instruct men’s selfishness.  Astonishing how capable it is of being instructed!  The mistake of the Socialist lies in his crediting men with far too much self-esteem, far too little perception of their own limits.  The characteristic of mankind at large is humility.’

Peak began to understand his old acquaintance; he had imagined him less acute.  Gratified by the smile of interest, Warricombe added: 

’There are forces of madness; I have shown you that I make allowance for them.  But they are only dangerous so long as privilege allies itself with hypocrisy.  The task of the modern civiliser is to sweep away sham idealisms.’