'
'H'm! That's not quite the same thing as imagining him that
beautiful child's husband. No education, I suppose?'
'Sufficient. With more, he would no longer fill the place he does.
He can speak eloquently; he is the true voice of the millions who
cannot speak their own thoughts. If he were more intellectual he
would become commonplace; I hope he will never see further than he
does now. Isn't a perfect type more precious than a man who is
neither one thing nor another?'
'Artistically speaking, by all means.'
'In his case I don't mean it artistically. He is doing a great
work.'
'A friend of mine--you don't know Hubert Eldon, I think?--tells me
he has ruined one of the loveliest valleys in England.'
'Yes, I dare say he has done that. It is an essential part of his
protest against social wrong. The earth renews itself, but a dead
man or woman who has lived without joy can never be recompensed.'
'She, of course, is strongly of the same opinion?'
'Adela is a Socialist.'
Mrs. Boscobel laughed rather satirically.
'I doubt it.'
Stella, when she went to sit with Adela, either at home or by the
sea-shore, often carried a book in her hand, and at Adela's request
she read aloud. In this way Adela first came to know what was meant
by literature, as distinguished from works of learning.
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