"True. But I hold to my point. Carthage was the mother of all hucksters, compassing sea and land to sell her wares." "And no bad line of life for a nation. At least Englishmen ought to think so." "No they ought not; at least if _'Punica fides'_ is to be the rule of trade. Selling any amount of Brummagem wares never did nation or man much good, and never will. Eh, Grey?" Grey winced at being appealed to, but remarked that he hoped the Church would yet be able to save England from the fate of Tyre or Carthage, the great trading nations of the old world; and then, swallowing his tea, and looking as if he had been caught robbing a henroost, he made a sudden exit, and hurried away out of college to the night school. "What a pity he is so odd and shy," said Tom; "I should so like to know more of him." "It _is_ a pity. He is much better when he is alone with me. I think he has heard from some of the set that you are a furious Protestant, and sees an immense amount of stiff-neckedness in you." "But about England and Carthage," said Tom, shirking the subject of his own peculiarities; "you don't really think us like them? It gave me a turn to hear you translating '_Punica fides_' into Brummagem wares just now. "I think that successful trade is our rock ahead. The devil who holds new markets and twenty per cent profits in his gift is the devil that England has most to fear from. 'Because of unrighteous dealings, and riches gotten by deceit the kingdom is translated from one people to another,' said the wise man. Think of that opium war the other day. I don't believe we can get over many more such businesses as that. Grey falls back on the Church, you see, to save the nation; but the Church he dreams of will never do it. Is there any that can? There _must_ be surely, or we have believed a lie. But this work of making trade righteous, of Christianizing trade, looks like the very hardest the Gospel has ever had to take in hand--in England at any rate." Hardy spoke slowly and doubtfully, and paused as if asking for Tom's opinion. "I never heard it put in that way. I know very little of politics or the state of England. But come, now; the putting down the slave-trade and compensating our planters, _that_ shows that we are not sold to the trade devil yet, surely." "I don't think we are. No, thank God, there are plenty of signs that we are likely to make a good fight of it yet."