gave me at last a clue to the whole business. He behaved exactly
like a man in possession of valuable patent rights, who wants to be
dealt with. He had an air of having a corner in ideas. Then it
flashed into my head that the whole Socialist movement was an
attempted corner in ideas. . . .



8


Late that night I found myself alone with Margaret amid the debris
of the gathering.

I sat before the fire, hands in pockets, and Margaret, looking white
and weary, came and leant upon the mantel.

"Oh, Lord!" said Margaret.

I agreed. Then I resumed my meditation.

"Ideas," I said, "count for more than I thought in the world."

Margaret regarded me with that neutral expression behind which she
was accustomed to wait for clues.

"When you think of the height and depth and importance and wisdom of
the Socialist ideas, and see the men who are running them," I
explained. . . . "A big system of ideas like Socialism grows up out
of the obvious common sense of our present conditions. It's as