“I forget what the old system was,” said Percy.
“Why, it seems incredible, but the old system was that all paid alike. First came the Heirloom Act, and then the change by which inherited wealth paid three times the duty of earned wealth, leading up to the acceptance of Karl Marx’s doctrines in ’89—but the former came in ’77.... Well, all these things kept England up to the level of the Continent; she had only been just in time to join in with the final scheme of Western Free Trade. That was the first effect, you remember, of the Socialists’ victory in Germany.”
“And how did we keep out of the Eastern War?” asked Percy anxiously.
“Oh! that’s a long story; but, in a word, America stopped us; so we lost India and Australia. I think that was the nearest to the downfall of the Communists since ’25. But Braithwaite got out of it very cleverly by getting us the protectorate of South Africa once and for all. He was an old man then, too.”
Mr. Templeton stopped to cough again. Father Francis sighed and shifted in his chair.
“And America?” asked Percy.
“Ah! all that is very complicated. But she knew her strength and annexed Canada the same year. That was when we were at our weakest.”
Percy stood up.
“Have you a Comparative Atlas, sir?” he asked.
The old man pointed to a shelf.