"Why, the names of the principal shareholders in the newspapers,"--said Reay, placidly--"_That_ might possibly open their eyes to the way their opinions are manufactured for them! There's very little 'liberty of the press' in Great Britain nowadays. The press is the property of a few rich men." Mary, who was working very intently on a broad length of old lace she was mending, looked up at him--her eyes were brilliant and her cheeks softly flushed. "I hope you will be brave enough to say that some day right out to the people as you say it to us,"--she observed. "I will! Never fear about that! If I _am_ ever anything--if I ever _can_ be anything--I will do my level best to save my nation from being swallowed up by a horde of German-American Jews!" said Reay, hotly--"I would rather suffer anything myself than see the dear old country brought to shame." "Right, very right!" said Mr. Bunce, approvingly--"And many--yes, I think we may certainly say many,--are of your spirit,--what do you think, David?" Helmsley had raised himself in his chair, and was looking wonderfully alert. The conversation interested him. "I quite agree,"--he said--"But Mr. Reay must remember that if he should ever want to make a clean sweep of German-American Jews and speculators as he says, and expose the way they tamper with British interests, he would require a great deal of money. A _very_ great deal of money!" he repeated, slowly,--"Now I wonder, Mr. Reay, what you would do with a million?--two millions?--three millions?--four millions?"-- "Stop, stop, old David!"--interrupted Twitt, suddenly holding up his hand--"Ye takes my breath away!" They all laughed, Reay's hearty tones ringing above the rest. "Oh, I should know what to do with them!"--he said; "but I wouldn't spend them on my own selfish pleasures--that I swear! For one thing, I'd run a daily newspaper on _honest_ lines----" "It wouldn't sell!" observed Helmsley, drily. "It would--it _should_!" declared Reay--"And I'd tell the people the truth of things,--I'd expose every financial fraud I could find----" "And you'd live in the law-courts, I fear!" said Mr. Bunce, gravely shaking his head--"We may be perfectly certain, I think--may we not, David?--that the law-courts would be Mr. Reay's permanent address?" They laughed again, and the conversation turned to other topics, though its tenor was not forgotten by anyone, least of all by Helmsley, who sat very silent for a long time afterwards, thinking deeply, and seeing in his thoughts various channels of usefulness to the world and the world's progress, which he had missed, but which others after him would find.