"How was that?" asked Mavis, striving to escape from her distracting emotions by following what Perigal was saying.
"The man with the arrow-heads hired a chap with a gift of the gab to tell the others how wrong it was to want things someone else had collared. That was the first lesson in morality, and the preacher, seeing there was money in the game, started the first priesthood. Yes, morality owes its existence to the fact of the well-to-do requiring to be confirmed in their possessions without having to defend them by force."
Mavis was now paying no attention to Perigal's talk: mind and heart were in Pennington Churchyard. Perigal, thinking he was interesting Mavis, went on:
"You mayn't think it, but a bad egg like me does no end of a lot of good in the world, although downright criminals do more. If it weren't for people who interfered with others' belongings, the race would get slack and deteriorate. It's having to look after one's property which keeps people alert and up to the mark, and, therefore, those who're the cause of this fitness have their uses. No, my dear Mavis, evil is a necessary ingredient of the body politic, and if it were abolished to-morrow the race would go to 'pot.'"
Perigal said more to the same effect. Mavis was, presently, moved to remark:
"You take the loss of the money you expected very calmly."
"No wonder!"
"No wonder?" she queried, without expressing any surprise in her voice.
"To begin with, you have it. Then I've seen you."
Mavis thought for a moment before saying: