'Yes; it is here.--You wonder why I came here. Because the people here are not all working-people. Some of them are small employers--those of whom I spoke--who stand on the lowest rung of the ladder and steal the things as fast as they are made, and take toll, and hoard up savings. The working-man is generous and open to others, compared with these people. I planted my place down in the midst of them. But you shall see--you shall see.' It was like a dream. Elsie walked beside her conductor. Yesterday she made the acquaintance of this man for the first time; she had never seen him before except in his sane condition; he was a madman--a real dangerous madman--stark staring mad; he was taking her she knew not where--to some place among strange people: she walked beside him without the least fear. She who would have fled before the most harmless lunatic; and she was going with him as his disciple. 'George,' she said afterwards, 'I do not know how it happened. I could not choose but go with him. I could not choose but to become his disciple: he compelled me. I lost my will. I even forgot that he was a madman: I gave up my reason and all: I followed him, and I believed all that he told me. How did he get that power? Directly I left him, I became myself again. I perceived the mad enthusiast. I saw Mr. Dering caricatured and proclaiming foolishness. But in his presence I was his servant and his slave.' * * * * * 'Here we are,' he said. 'This is my Place. Let us go in.' CHAPTER XXIII THE HALL OF THE NEW FAITH The Place, as Mr. Edmund Gray modestly called it, was a meek and unpretending Structure. The word is used advisedly, because no one could call it anything else. Not an Edifice; not a Building--a Structure. It turned its gabled front to the street, with a door below and a window above. It was of gray brick with a slate roof--a very plain and simple Structure. It might have been a Primitive Methodist Chapel--the Connexion are fond of such neat and unpretending places: or a room belonging to the Salvation Army: or one of those queer lecture halls affected by Secularists and generally called the Hall of Science. On the doorpost was affixed a small handbill, announcing that every Sunday evening at seven o'clock an address would be pronounced by Edmund Gray, on the subject of 'Property.' On the same bill, below the line of the principal title, were suggestive sub-titles. Thus: 'PROPERTY AND ITS ORIGIN.' 'PROPERTY AND ITS EVILS.' 'PROPERTY AND ITS DANGERS.' 'PROPERTY AND LIBERTY.' 'PROPERTY AND PROGRESS.' 'PROPERTY AND ITS DECAY.'