not business enterprises at all, and therefore must not be confused and compared with enterprises that were “practical”; but the workmen fixed tenaciously upon the central fact that the university’s men worked at mechanical labor fewer hours each day by four to seven, and even eight, got higher wages, got more out of life in every way.  Nor was there any of the restraint and degradation of the “model town.”  The workers could live and act as they pleased; it was by the power of an intelligent public opinion that Arthur was inducing his fellows and their families to build for themselves attractive homes, to live in tasteful comfort, to acquire sane habits of eating, drinking, and personal appearance.  And no one was more amazed than himself at the swiftness with which the overwhelming majority responded to the opportunity.  Small wonder that the other manufacturers, who at best never went beyond the crafty, inexpensive schemes of benevolent charity, were roaring against the university as a “hotbed of anarchy.”

At Adelaide’s suggestion of the outburst that would follow the new and still more “inflammatory” revolution, Lorry shrugged his shoulders and laughed easily.  “Nobody need worry for that brother of yours, Mrs. Hargrave,” said he.  “There may be some factories for sale cheap before many years.  If so, the university can buy them in and increase its usefulness.  Dory and Arthur are going to have a university that will be up to the name before they get through—­one for all ages and kinds, and both sexes, and for everybody all his life long and in all his relations.”

“It’s a beautiful dream,” said Del.  She was remembering how Dory used to enlarge upon it in Paris until his eloquence made her feel that she loved him at the same time that it also gave her a chilling sense of his being far from her, too big and impersonal for so intimate and personal a thing as the love she craved.  “A beautiful dream,” she repeated with a sigh.

“That’s the joy of life,” said Estelle, “isn’t it?  To have beautiful dreams, and to help make them come true.”

“And this one is actually coming true,” said Lorry.  “Wait a few years, only a few, and you’ll see the discoveries of science make everything so cheap that vulgar, vain people will give up vulgarity and vanity in despair.  A good many of the once aristocratic vulgarities have been cheapened into absurdity already.  The rest will follow.”

“Only a few years?” said Del, laughing, yet more than half-convinced.

“Use your imagination, Mrs. Hargrave,” replied Lorry, in his large, good-humored way.  “Don’t be afraid to be sensible just because most people look on common sense as insanity.  A hundred things that used to be luxuries for the king alone are now so cheap that the day-laborer has them—­all in less than two lifetimes of real science!  To-morrow or next day some one will discover, say, the secret of easily and cheaply interchanging the so-called elements.  Bang! the whole structure of swagger and envy will collapse!”