secure initiative to those who are born for rule. Anything which
serves to impress ordinary minds with a sense of social equilibrium
to give them an object lesson in the substitution of leadership for
anarchy--must be of immense value. Here was a community falling
into wreck, cut loose from the orderly system of things, old duties
and obligations forgotten, only hungry rights insisted upon. It was
a picture in little of the multitude given over to itself. Into the
midst of this chaos, Lady Ogram brings a directing mind, a
beneficent spirit of initiative, and the means, the power, of
re-establishing order. The villagers have but to look at the old
state of things and the new to learn a lesson which the thoughtful
among them will apply in a wider sphere. They know that Lady Ogram
had no selfish aim, no wish to make profit out of their labour; that
she acted purely and simply in the interests of humble folk--and
of the world at large. They see willing industry substituted for
brutal or miserable indolence; they see a striking example of the
principle of association, of solidarity--of perfect balance
between the naturally superior and the naturally subordinate."

"Good, very good!" murmured Mr. Gallantry. "Eloquent!"

"I admit the eloquence," said Mrs. Gallantry, smiling at Lashmar
with much amiability, "but I really can't see why this lesson
couldn't have been just as well taught by the measure that I
proposed."

"Let me show you why I think not," replied Dyce, who was now
enjoying the sound of his own periods, and felt himself inspired by
the general attention. "The idea of domestic service is far too
familiar to these rustics to furnish the basis of any new