Father Jervis shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, I don’t understand it,” he said.  “If a man was ashamed of his trade, why did he follow it?”

“I’ve been thinking,” said Monsignor animatedly, “that perhaps it’s the new teaching on Vocation that has made the difference.  Once a man understands that his Vocation is the most honourable thing he can do, I suppose——­There! who’s that man,” he interrupted suddenly, “in blue with the badge?”

A tremendous figure was crossing the road just in front of them.  He wore a short, full blue cloak, with a silver badge on the left breast, a tight-fitting cap of the same colour repeating the same badge, and from beneath his cloak in front hung a tunic, with enormous legs in tight blue hose and shoes moving underneath.

“Ah! that’s a great man,” said the priest.  “He’s a Butcher, of course——­”

“A butcher!”

“Yes; that’s obvious—­it’s the blue, for one thing, and the cut, for another.  Wait an instant.  I shall see his badge directly.”

As the great man came past them he saluted deferentially.  The priests bowed with equal deference, lifting their hands to their broad-leaved hats.

“Yes:  he’s very high up,” said the priest quietly.  “A member of the Council of the National Guild, at least.”

“Do you mean that man kills oxen?”

“Not now, of course; he’s worked his way up.  He probably represents the Guild in the Assembly.”

“Do all the trades have guilds, and are they all represented in the Assembly?”

“Why, of course!  How else could you be certain that the trade was treated fairly?  If all the citizens voted as citizens, there’d simply be no fair representation at all.  Look; there’s a goldsmith—­he has probably been to the King; that’s a journeyman with him.”

An open car sped past them.  Two men were seated in it; both in clothes of some really beautiful metallic colour; but the cap of one was plain, while the cap of the other blazed with some device.

“And the women?  I can’t see any system among them.”

“Ah! but there is, though it’s harder to detect.  They have much more liberty than the men; but, as a rule, each woman has a predominating colour, the colour of the head of her family, and all, of course, wear badges.  There are sumptuary laws, I needn’t say.”

“I shouldn’t have guessed it!”

“Well, not as regards price or material, certainly—­only size.  There are certain absolute limits on both sides; and fashions have to manage between the two.  You see it’s the same thing as in trades and professions, as I told you yesterday.  We encourage the individual to be as individualistic as possible, and draw the limits very widely, beyond which he mustn’t go.  But those limits are imperative.  We try to develop both extremes at once—­liberty and law.  We had enough of the via media—­the mediocrity of the average—­under Socialism.”