March could not find out that he had ridden his hobby into the homes of want which he visited, or had proposed their enslavement to the inmates as a short and simple solution of the great question of their lives; he appeared to have contented himself with the collection of facts for the persuasion of the cultivated classes.

It seemed to March a confirmation of this impression that the colonel should address his deductions from these facts so unsparingly to him; he listened with a respectful patience, for which Fulkerson afterward personally thanked him.

Fulkerson said it was not often the colonel found such a good listener; generally nobody listened but Mrs.Leighton, who thought his ideas were shocking, but honored him for holding them so conscientiously.

Fulkerson was glad that March, as the literary department, had treated the old gentleman so well, because there was an open feud between him and the art department.

Beaton was outrageously rude, Fulkerson must say; though as for that, the old colonel seemed quite able to take care of himself, and gave Beaton an unqualified contempt in return for his unmannerliness.