"
The Bishop leaned across the table.
"You have been reading Fiske this week."
"Did I quote?" Julian asked carelessly. "I have a wretched
memory. I should never dare to become a politician. I should
always be passing off other people's phrases as my own."
"Fiske is quite right in his main contention," Mr. Stenson
interposed. "The war is rapidly creating a new class of
bourgeoisie. The very differences in the earning of skilled
labourers will bring trouble before long--the miner with his
fifty or sixty shillings, and the munition worker with his seven
or eight pounds--men drawn from the same class."
"England," declared the Earl, indulging in his favourite speech,
"was never so contented as when wages were at their lowest."
"Those days will never come again," Mr. Hannaway Wells foretold
grimly. "The working man has tasted blood. He has begun to
understand his power. Our Ministers have been asleep for a
generation. The first of these modern trades unions should have
been treated like a secret society in Italy. Look at them now,
and what they represent! Fancy what it will mean when they have
all learnt to combine!--when Labour produces real leaders!"
"Can any one explain the German democracy?" Lord Shervinton
enquired.
"The ubiquitous Fiske was trying to last week in one of the
Reviews," Mr. Stenson replied. "His argument was that Germany
alone, of all the nations in the world, possessed an extra quality
or an extra sense--I forget which he called it--the sense of
discipline.
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