‘I have an idea of them.’

‘You think them mistaken?’

’No.  I would rather say they don’t interest me.  That seems to disappoint you, Miss Waltham.  Probably you are interested in them?’

At the sound of her own name thus formally interjected, Adela just raised her eyes from their reflective gaze on the near landscape; then she became yet more thoughtful.

‘Yes, I think I am,’ she replied, with deliberation.  ’The principle seems a just one.  Devotion to a really unselfish cause is rare, I am afraid.’

’You have met Mr. Mutimer?

‘Once.  My brother made his acquaintance, and he called on us.’

‘Did he explain his scheme to you in detail?’

’Not himself.  Alfred has told me all about it.  He, of course, is delighted with it; he has joined what he calls the Union.’

‘Are you going to join?’ Hubert asked, smiling.

‘I?  I doubt whether they would have me.’

She laughed silverly, her throat tremulous, like that of a bird that sings.  How significant the laugh was! the music of how pure a freshet of life!

‘All the members, I presume,’ said Hubert, ’are to be speedily enriched from the Wanley Mines and Iron Works?’

It was jokingly uttered, but Adela replied with some earnestness, as if to remove a false impression.

’Oh, that is quite a mistake.  Mr. Eldon.  There is no question of anyone being enriched, least of all Mr. Mutimer himself.  The workmen will receive just payment, not mere starvation wages, but whatever profit there is will be devoted to the propaganda.’

’Propaganda!  Starvation wages!  Ah, I see you have gone deeply into these matters.  How strangely that word sounds on your lips—­propaganda!’

Adela reddened.

‘Why strangely, Mr. Eldon?’

’One associates it with such very different speakers; it has such a terrible canting sound.  I hope you will not get into the habit of using it—­for your own sake.’

’I am not likely to use it much.  I suppose I have. heard it so often from Alfred lately.  Please don’t think,’ she added rather hastily, ’that I have become a Socialist.  Indeed, I dislike the name; I find it implies so many things that I could never approve of.’

Her way of speaking the last sentence would have amused a dispassionate critic, it was so distinctively the tone of Puritan maidenhood.  From lips like Adela’s it is delicious to hear such moral babbling.  Oh, the gravity of conviction in a white-souled English girl of eighteen!  Do you not hear her say those words:  ‘things that I could never approve of’?

As her companion did not immediately reply, she again raised the field-glass to her eyes and swept the prospect.

‘Can you see your brother on the road?’ Hubert inquired.

’No, not yet.  There is a trap driving this way.  Why, Alfred sitting in it!  Oh, it is Mr. Mutimer’s trap I see.  He must have met Alfred at the station and have given him a ride.’