are cowards."

"Not at all," he objected. "They were very well advised. They acted
with shrewd common sense. America is no better prepared for a
revolution than England is."

"Do you imagine," she demanded, her voice trembling, "that you will be
permitted to repeat in this country your American exploits?"

Maraton smiled a little sadly.

"Need we discuss these things, Lady Elisabeth?"

"Yes, we need!" she replied promptly. "This is my one opportunity. You
and I will probably never exchange another word so long as we live. I
have read your book--every word of it. I have read it several times.
In that book you have shown just as much of yourself as you chose, and
no more. Although I have hated the idea that I might ever have to speak
to you, now that you are here, now that it has come to pass, I am going
to ask you a question."

He sighed.

"People ask me so many questions!"

"Tell me this," she continued, without heeding his interruption. "Do
you, in your heart, believe that you are justified in going about the
world preaching your hateful doctrines, seeking out the toilers only to
fill them with discontent and to set them against their employers,
preaching everywhere bloodshed and anarchy, inflaming the minds of