"It has grown beyond that already. They can't even get at Bolster. If they had been able to arrest him at the start, they might have intimidated the rest. But there must be some scores of people who have barricaded themselves into their houses to-night, and thrown all their surplus goods out of the window. They can't deal with them all; there aren't enough of them to do it. No; we have already got to the point at which we can make terms. Very soon we shall be strong enough to dictate them. Oh, my dear Howard, I can't tell you what I feel about it. I feel inclined now, at this moment, to throw every article of value in this room out of the window." "Oh, I shouldn't do that if I were you," I said, with an eye on the silver-backed brushes I had acquired at the Universal Stores. "There is nothing to complain of in this house." "Not much, perhaps, but there is the principle. Still, our servants here are our friends. Blother often spanked me as a child, and Arthur and I played fives together at school. I don't want to make trouble here. I think, considering what we have done to help the rich, nobody can call us disloyal for standing outside." "I am sure your father would much prefer it." "Has he talked about it at all?" Edward asked a little anxiously. "What are his views of the movement?" "I think he feels that it is a little too upsetting altogether. He showed no disposition to throw his dinner out of the window this evening." "That would, perhaps, be too much to expect of him," said Edward. "Twenty years ago I am sure he would have been the first to do it." "I am not so sure about that," I said. "He seems to have taken his own quiet line from the beginning. He has forced himself rigidly into a life of luxury, and, as far as I have observed, has never flinched from it." "No," said Edward. "He has led a noble and beautiful life of self-sacrifice, and it sometimes crosses my mind that it has rewarded him by making him happier living as a rich man than as a poor man." "The same idea has occasionally crossed _my_ mind," I said. "I shouldn't drag him into it, if I were you." "I think perhaps you are right. I should not like to distract his mind by trying to persuade him to take a leading part in this great fight for freedom. Let him go on in his quiet unselfish way. He has really been fighting for us, and preparing the way for this all his life." When Edward had told me all that had happened, and a great deal of what he hoped would happen, he became rather pensive. "Do you know," he said, "I believe this is the last night I may sleep in my own peaceful home, which, for all its drawbacks of wealth and ease, is still very dear to me. It may be weeks, or even years, before I may come back to it." "Why do you think that?" I asked. "To-morrow we demonstrate. We march through the streets of Culbut with banners. I shall be at the head of the procession, with others, of course, but at any rate in a prominent position. I shall be a marked man."