He paused to see what Adela would say.
‘No doubt it will be a very good thing if you can persuade them to save in that way,’ she remarked.
‘Good, yes; but I’m not thinking so much of the money. Don’t you see that it’ll give me a hold over them? Every man who wants to save on my plan must join the Union. They’ll come together regularly; I can get at them and make them listen to me. Why, it’s a magnificent idea! It’s fighting the capitalists with their own weapons! You’ll see what the “Tocsin” ‘ll say. Of course they’ll make out that I’m going against Socialist principles. So I am, but it’s for the sake of Socialism for all that. If I make Socialists, it doesn’t much matter how I do it.’
Adela could have contested that point, but did not care to do so. She said:
‘Are you sure you can persuade the men to trust you with their money?’
‘That’s the difficulty, I know; but see if I don’t get over it. I’ll have a committee, holding themselves responsible for all sums paid to us. I’ll publish weekly accounts—just a leaflet, you know. And do you know what? I’ll promise that as soon as they’ve trusted me with a hundred pounds, I’ll add another hundred of my own. See if that won’t fetch them!’
As usual when he saw a prospect of noisy success he became excited beyond measure, and talked incessantly till midnight.
‘Other men don’t have these ideas!’ he exclaimed at one moment. ‘That’s what I meant when I told you I was born to be a leader. And I’ve the secret of getting people’s confidence. They’ll trust me, see if they don’t!’
In spite of Adela’s unbroken reserve, he had seldom been other than cordial in his behaviour to her since the recommencement of his prosperity. His active life gave him no time to brood over suspicions, though his mind was not altogether free from them. He still occasionally came home at hours when he could not be expected, but Adela was always occupied either with housework or reading, and received him with the cold self-possession which came of her understanding his motives. Her life was lonely; since a visit they had received from Alfred at the past Christmas she had seen no friend. One day in spring Mutimer asked her if she did not wish to see Mrs. Westlake; she replied that she had no desire to, and he said nothing more. Stella did not write; she had ceased to do so since receiving a certain lengthy letter from Adela, in which the latter begged that their friendship might feed on silence for a while. When the summer came there were pressing invitations from Wanley, but Adela declined them. Alfred and his wife were going again to South Wales; was it impossible for Adela to join them? Letty wrote a letter full of affectionate pleading, but it was useless.
In August, Mutimer proposed to take his wife for a week the Sussex coast. He wanted a brief rest himself, and he saw that Adela was yet more in need of change. She never complained of ill-health, but was weak and pale. With no inducement to leave the house, it was much if she had an hour’s open-air exercise in the week; often the mere exertion of rising and beginning the day was followed by a sick languor which compelled her to lie all the afternoon on the couch. She studied much, reading English and foreign books which required mental exertion. They were rot works relating to the ‘Social Question’—far other. The volumes she used to study were a burden and a loathing to her as often as her eyes fell upon them.