I shall best thank you by admitting that I should have found it very unpleasant to meet Mr. Mutimer. You felt that, and hence your kindness. At the same time, no doubt, you pity me for my littleness.
I think it perfectly natural that such a meeting should be disagreeable. I believe I understand your feeling. Indeed, you explained it to me yesterday.
I explained it?
In what you said about the works in the valley.
True. Many people would have interpreted me less liberally.
Adelas eyes brightened a little. But when she raised them, they fell upon something which disturbed her cheerfulness. This was the face of Mrs. Mewling, who had come up from the direction of Wanley and was clearly about to pay a visit at the Manor. The lady smiled and murmured a greeting as she passed by.
I suppose Mrs. Mewling is going to see my mother, said Hubert, who also had lost a little of his naturalness.
A few more words and they again parted. Nothing further was said of the postponed visit. Adela hastened homewards, dreading lest she had made a great mistake, yet glad that she had ventured to come.
Her mother was just going out into the garden, where Alfreds voice sounded frequently in laughter or denunciation. Adela would have been glad to sit alone for a short time, for Mrs. Waltham seemed to wish for her company She had only time to glance at herself in her looking-glass and just press a palm against each cheek.
Alfred was puffing clouds from his briar pipe, but Mutimer had ceased smoking. Near the latter was a vacant seat; Adela took it, as there was no other.
What a good thing the day of rest is! exclaimed Mrs. Waltham. I always feel thankful when I think of the poor men who toil so all through the week in Belwick, and how they must enjoy their Sunday. You surely wouldnt make any change in that, Mr. Mutimer?
The change I should like to see would be in the other direction, Richard replied. I would have holidays far more frequent. In the towns you can scarcely call Sunday a holiday. Theres nothing to do but to walk about the streets. On the whole it does far more harm than good.
Do they never go to church? asked Adela. She was experiencing a sort of irritation against their guest, a feeling traceable to more than one source; Mutimers frequent glances did not tend to soothe it. She asked the question rather in a spirit of adverse criticism.
The working people dont, was the reply, except a Dissenting family here and there.
Perhaps that is one explanation of the Sundays being useless to them.
Adela would scarcely have ventured upon such a tone in reference to any secular matter; the subject being religion, she was of course justified in expressing herself freely.
Mutimer smiled and held back his rejoinder for a moment. By that time Alfred had taken his pipe from his lips and was giving utterance to unmeasured scorn.
But, Mr. Mutimer, said Mrs. Waltham, waving aside her sons vehemence, you dont seriously tell us that the working people have no religion? Surely that would be too shocking!
Yes, I say it seriously, Mrs. Waltham. In the ordinary sense of the word, they have no religion. The truth is, they have no time to think of it.
Oh, but surely it needs no thought
Alfred exploded.
I mean, pursued his mother, that, however busy we are, there must always be intervals to be spared from the world.
Mutimer again delayed his reply. A look which he cast at Adela appeared to move her to speech.
Have they not their evenings free, as well as every Sunday?
Happily, Miss Waltham, you cant realise their lives, Richard began. He was not smiling now; Adelas tone had struck him like a challenge, and he collected himself to meet her. The man who lives on wages is never free; he sells himself body and soul to his employer. What sort of freedom does a man enjoy who may any day find himself and his family on the point of starvation just because he has lost his work? All his life long he has before his mind the fear of wantnot only of straitened means, mind you, but of destitution and the workhouse. How can such a man put aside his common cares? Religion is a luxury; the working man has no luxuries. Now, you speak of the free evenings; people always do, when theyre asking why the working classes dont educate themselves. Do you understand what that free evening means? He gets home, say, at six oclock, tired out; he has to be up again perhaps at five next morning. What can he do but just lie about half asleep? Why, thats the whole principle of the capitalist system of employment; its calculated exactly how long a man can be made to work in a day without making him incapable of beginning again on the day followingjust as its calculated exactly how little a man can live upon, in the regulation of wages. If the workman returned home with strength to spare, employers would soon find it out, and workshop legislation would be revisedbecause of course its the capitalists that make the laws. The principle is that a man shall have no strength left for himself; its all paid for, every scrap of it, bought with the wages at each week end. What religion can such men have? Religion, I suppose, means thankfulness for life and its pleasuresat all events, thats a great part of itand what has a wage-earner to be thankful for?
It sounds very shocking, observed Mrs. Waltham, somewhat disturbed by the speakers growing earnestness. Richard paid no attention and continued to address Adela.
I dare say youve heard of the early trainsworkmens trainsthat they run on the London railways. If only you could travel once by one of those! Between station and station theres scarcely a man or boy in the carriage who can keep awake; there they sit, leaning over against each other, their heads dropping forward, their eyelids that heavy they cant hold them up. I tell you its one of the most miserable sights to be seen in this world. If you saw it, Miss Waltham, youd pity them, Im very sure of that! You only need to know what their life means. People who have never known hardship often speak more cruelly than they think, and of course it always will be so as long as the rich and the poor are two different races, as much apart as if there was an ocean between them.
Adelas cheeks were warm. It was a novel sensation to be rebuked in this unconventional way. She was feeling a touch of shame as well as the slight resentment which was partly her class-instinct, partly of her sex.
I feel that I have no right to give any opinion, she said in an undertone.
Meaning, Adela, commented her brother, that you have a very strong opinion and stick to it.
One thing I dare say you are thinking, Miss Waltham, Richard pursued, if youll allow me to say it. You think that I myself dont exactly prove what Ive been sayingI mean to say, that I at all events have had free time, not only to read and reflect, but to give lectures and so on. Yes, and Ill explain that. It was my good fortune to have a father and mother who were very careful and hard-working and thoughtful people; I and my sister and brother were brought up in an orderly home, and taught from the first that ceaseless labour and strict economy were the things always to be kept in mind. All that was just fortunate chance; Im not praising myself in saying Ive been able to get more into my time than most other working men; its my father and mother I have to thank for it. Suppose theyd been as ignorant and careless as most of their class are made by the hard lot they have to endure; why, I should have followed them, thats all. Weve never had to go without a meal, and why? Just because weve all of us worked like slaves and never allowed ourselves to think of rest or enjoyment. When my father died, of course we had to be more careful than ever; but there were three of us to earn money, fortunately, and we kept up the home. We put our money by for the club every week, whats more.
The club? queried Miss Waltham, to whom the word suggested Pall Mall and vague glories which dwelt in her imagination.
Thats to make provision for times when were ill or cant get work, Mutimer explained. If a wage-earner falls ill, what has he to look to? The capitalist wont trouble himself to keep him alive; theres plenty to take his place. Well, thats my position, or was a few months ago. I dont suppose any workman has had more advantages. Take it as an example of the most we can hope for, and pray say what it amounts to! Just on the right side, just keeping afloat, just screwing out an hour here and there to work your brain when you ought to be taking wholesome recreation! Thats nothing very grand, it seems to me. Yet people will point to it and ask what there is to grumble at!
Adela sat uneasily under Mutimers gaze; she kept her eyes down.
And Im not sure that I should always have got on as easily, the speaker continued. Only a day or two before I heard of my relatives death, Id just been dismissed from my employment; that was because they didnt like my opinions. Well, I dont say they hadnt a right to dismiss me, just as I suppose youve a right to kill as many of the enemy as you can in time of war. But suppose I couldnt have got work anywhere. I had nothing but my hands to depend upon; if I couldnt sell my muscles I must starve, thats all.
Adela looked at him for almost the first time. She had heard this story from her brother, but it came more impressively from Mutimers own lips. A sort of heroism was involved in it, the championship of a cause regardless of self. She remained thoughtful with troublous colours on her face.
Mrs. Waltham was more obviously uneasy. There are certain things to which in good society one does not refer, first and foremost humiliating antecedents. The present circumstances were exceptional to be sure, but it was to be hoped that Mr. Mutimer would outgrow this habit of advertising his origin. Let him talk of the working-classes if he liked, but always in the third person. The good lady began to reflect whether she might not venture shortly to give him friendly hints on this and similar subjects.
But it was nearly tea-time. Mrs. Waltham shortly rose and went into the house, whither Alfred followed her. Mutimer kept his seat, and Adela could not leave him to himself, though for the moment he seemed unconscious of her presence. When they had been alone together for a little while, Richard broke the silence.
I hope I didnt speak rudely to you; Miss Waltham. I dont think I need fear to say what I mean, but I know there are always two ways of saying things, and perhaps I chose the roughest.
Adela was conscious of having said a few hard things mentally, and this apology, delivered in a very honest voice, appealed to her instinct of justice. She did not like Mutimer, and consequently strove against the prejudice which the very sound of his voice aroused in her; it was her nature to aim thus at equity in her personal judgments.
To describe hard things we must use hard words, she replied pleasantly, but you said nothing that could offend.
I fear you havent much sympathy with my way of looking at the question. I seem to you to be going to work the wrong way.
I certainly think you value too little the means of happiness that we all have within our reach, rich and poor alike.
Ah, if you could only see into the life of the poor, you would acknowledge that those means are and can be nothing to them. Besides, my way of thinking in such things is the same as your brothers, and I cant expect you to see any good in it.
Adela shook her head slightly. She had risen and was examining the leaves upon an apple branch which she had drawn down.
But Im sure you feel that there is need for doing something, he urged, quitting his seat. Youre not indifferent to the hard lives of the people, as most people are who have always lived comfortable lives?
She let the branch spring up, and spoke more coldly.
I hope I am not indifferent; but it is not in my power to do anything.
Will you let me say that you are mistaken in that? Mutimer had never before felt himself constrained to qualify and adorn his phrases; the necessity made him awkward. Not only did he aim at polite modes of speech altogether foreign to his lips, but his own voice sounded strange to him in its forced suppression. He did not as yet succeed in regarding himself from the outside and criticising the influences which had got hold upon him; he was only conscious that a young ladythe very type of young lady that a little while ago he would have held up for scornwas subduing his nature by her mere presence and exacting homage from him to which she was wholly indifferent. Everyone can give help in such a cause as this. You can work upon the minds of the people you talk with and get them to throw away their prejudices. The cause of the working classes seems so hopeless just because theyre too far away to catch the ears of those who oppress them.
I do not oppress them, Mr. Mutimer.
Adela spoke with a touch of impatience. She wished to bring this conversation to an end, and the man would give her no opportunity of doing so. She was not in reality paying attention to his arguments, as was evident in her echo of his last words.
Not willingly, but none the less you do so, he rejoined. Everyone who lives at ease and without a thought of changing the present state of society is tyrannising over the people. Every article of clothing you put on means a life worn out somewhere in a factory. What would your existence be without the toil of those men and women who live and die in want of every comfort which seems as natural to you as the air you breathe? Dont you feel that you owe them something? Its a debt that can very easily be forgotten, I know that, and just because the creditors are too weak to claim it. Think of it in that way, and Im quite sure you wont let it slip from your mind again.
Alfred came towards them, announcing that tea was ready, and Adela gladly moved away.
You wont make any impression there, said Alfred with a shrug of good-natured contempt. Argument isnt understood by women. Now, if you were a revivalist preacher Mrs. Waltham and Adela went to church. Mutimer returned to his lodgings, leaving his friend Waltham smoking in the garden.
On the way home after service, Adela had a brief murmured conversation with Letty Tew. Her mother was walking out with Mrs. Mewling.
It was evidently pre-arranged, said the latter, after recounting certain details in a tone of confidence. I was quite shocked. On his part such conduct is nothing less than disgraceful. Adela, of course, cannot be expected to know.
I must tell her, was the reply.
Adela was sitting rather dreamily in her bedroom a couple of hours later when her mother entered.
Little girls shouldnt tell stories, Mrs. Waltham began, with playfulness which was not quite natural. Who was it that wanted to go and speak a word to Letty this afternoon?
It wasnt altogether a story, mother, pleaded the girl, shamed, but with an endeavour to speak independently. I did want to speak to Letty.
And you put it off, I suppose? Really, Adela, you must remember that a girl of your age has to be mindful of her self-respect. In Wanley you cant escape notice; besides
Let me explain, mother. Adelas voice was made firm by the suggestion that she had behaved unbecomingly. I went to Letty first of all to tell her of a difficulty I was in. Yesterday afternoon I happened to meet Mr. Eldon, and when he was saying good-bye I asked him if he wouldnt come and see you before he left Wanley. He promised to come this afternoon. At the time of course I didnt know that Alfred had invited Mr. Mutimer. It would have been so disagreeable for Mr. Eldon to meet him here, I made up my mind to walk towards the Manor and tell Mr. Eldon what had happened.