"Cato, you are a perfectly gorgeous mixture of building air castles and of seeing things upside down! One can never tell whether your head is in the clouds or on the ground." Robert indulgently proceeded to say that the Guildsmen were young people of like sentiments with his own. In a general way, their aim was to advance the idea that the producers and servers of society, being the rightful possessors of the earth, must eliminate the profiteers and the parasites who have usurped possession. "If that is your aim, Robert, I predict that your league and your secretaryship will have a short life and a merry one." Robert laughed and admitted that he did not expect a long tenure of office. The Guild plan was a European idea for which America was by no means ripe. "I fancy we are as progressive in industrial matters as the Europeans are," said Cornelia, on her mettle. "Oh, more so," replied Robert, drily. "Our giant industries lead the world in maximizing the production of things of a mediocre quality and the creation of human life of a contemptible quality. Yes, in crude capacity, we are ahead of our European competitors. But in political capacity, we still lag far behind. Hence the difficulty of transplanting to our soil a high-class social policy like that of the Guildsmen." "But when this Guild plan dies a natural death, what forlorn hope will you champion next?" "I fear there’ll be nothing left but to throw myself on the mercy of a rich uncle." "What, an uncle in a fairy tale?" "No, an uncle in California, a real live one." Cornelia evinced little more than a languid interest in Robert’s information. Fabulously rich relatives—who were cast for the parts of _Deus ex machina_, but who never materialized in flesh or cash—made a golden splash in the ’scutcheon of too many veteran Lorillard inhabitants. She preferred a conversation dealing with more tangible personages. Truth to tell, she rather hoped that Robert would try to undo the painful impression he had made on her by his recent criticism of her affair with Percival Houghton. All the greater was her chagrin when he brought the talk around to the subject of Janet. *IV* He began adroitly enough by complimenting her on the success with which she had made Janet alive to the galvanic interests of contemporary life. It was a miracle of education, he assured her, and he begged her not to spoil the achievement by converting Janet to her favorite theory of free love. He hoped she would rather warn her friend of the folly of contracting a free union under existing social sanctions. "Like the majority of men, you believe love and sex emotion to be one and the same thing," she retorted, cuttingly. "That’s why you have no understanding of what freedom in love means." "Now, Cornelia, I won’t be drawn into a controversy on the merits of free love." "Then don’t sneer at it."