Mrs. Waltham was anxiously meditative of plans for bringing Adela to regard her Socialist wooer with more favourable eyes. She, too, had hopes that Mutimer’s fame in the mouths of men might prove an attraction, yet she suspected a strength of principle in Adela which might well render all such hopes vain. And she thought it only too likely, though observation gave her no actual assurance of this, that the girl still thought of Hubert Eldon in a way to render it doubly hard for any other man to make an impression upon her. It was dangerous, she knew, to express her abhorrence of Hubert too persistently; yet, on the other hand, she was convinced that Adela had been so deeply shocked by the revelations of Hubert’s wickedness that her moral nature would be in arms against her lingering inclination. After much mental wear and tear, she decided to adopt the strong course of asking Alfred’s assistance. Alfred was sure to view the proposed match with hearty approval, and, though he might not have much influence directly, he could in all probability secure a potent ally in the person of Letty Tew. This was rather a brilliant idea; Mrs. Waltham waited impatiently for her son’s return from Belwick on Saturday. She broached the subject to him with much delicacy. ‘I am so convinced, Alfred, that it would be for your sister’s happiness. There really is no harm whatever in aiding her inexperience; that is all that I wish to do. I’m sure you understand me?’ ‘I understand well enough,’ returned the young man; ‘but if you convince Adela against her will you’ll do a clever thing. You’ve been so remarkably successful in closing her mind against all arguments of reason--’ ‘Now, Alfred, do not begin and talk in that way! It has nothing whatever to do with the matter. This is entirely a personal question.’ ‘Nothing of the kind. It’s a question of religious prejudice. She hates Mutimer because he doesn’t go to church, there’s the long and short of it.’ ‘Adela very properly condemns his views, but that’s quite a different thing from hating him.’ ‘Oh dear, no; they’re one and the same thing. Look at the history of persecution. She would like to see him--and me too, I dare say--brought to the stake.’ ‘Well, well, of course if you won’t talk sensibly I had something to propose.’ ‘Let me hear it, then.’ ‘You yourself agree with me that there would be nothing to repent in urging her.’ ‘On the contrary, I think she might consider herself precious lucky. It’s only that’--he looked dubious for a moment--‘I’m not quite sure whether she’s the kind of girl to be content with a husband she found she couldn’t convert. I can imagine her marrying a rake on the hope of bringing him to regular churchgoing, but then Mutimer doesn’t happen to be a blackguard, so he isn’t very interesting to her.’