Now and then, indeed, a dissentient voice was raised as to the existence
of a Supreme Being, but, with one exception, it soon sank into silence.
No voice was raised in defence of private property. These sages appeared
for the most part to belong to the class of _ouvriers_ or artisans. Some
of them were foreigners,--Belgian, German, English; all seemed well off
for their calling. Indeed they must have had comparatively high wages,
to judge by their dress and the money they spent on regaling themselves.
The language of several was well chosen, at times eloquent. Some brought
with them women who seemed respectable, and who often joined in the
conversation, especially when it turned upon the law of marriage as a
main obstacle to all personal liberty and social improvement. If this
was a subject on which the women did not all agree, still they discussed
it, without prejudice and with admirable sang froid. Yet many of them
looked like wives and mothers. Now and then a young journeyman brought
with him a young lady of more doubtful aspect, but such a couple kept
aloof from the others. Now and then, too, a man evidently of higher
station than that of ouvrier, and who was received by the philosophers
with courtesy and respect, joined one of the tables and ordered a bowl of
punch for general participation. In such occasional visitors, Graham,
still listening, detected a writer of the press; now and then, a small
artist or actor or medical student. Among the _habitues_ there was one
man, an _ouvrier_, in whom Graham could not help feeling an interest. He
was called Monnier, sometimes more familiarly Armand, his baptismal
appellation. This man had a bold and honest expression of countenance.
He talked like one who, if he had not read much, had thought much on the
subjects he loved to discuss. He argued against the capital of employers
quite as ably as Mr. Mill has argued against the rights of property in
land. He was still more eloquent against the laws of marriage and
Heritage. But his was the one voice not to be silenced in favour of a