94 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



standing on the kerb, took a sovereign from his pocket, 

 looked at it and then at the unemployed, made a little 

 gesture of utter bewilderment, and dropping the coin 

 down into the drain below, continued to watch. Com- 

 fortable clerks and others of the servile realized that here 

 were the unemployed about whom the newspapers had 

 said this and that — (" a pressing question " — " a very 

 complicated question not to be decided in a hurry " — " it 

 is receiving the attention of some of the best intellects of 

 the time " — " our special reporter is making a full investi- 

 gation " — " who are the genuine and who are the im- 

 postors ? " — " connected with Socialist intrigues ") — and 

 they repeated the word " Socialism " and smiled at the 

 bare legs of the son of man and the yellow boots of the 

 orator. Next day they would smile again with pride that 

 they had seen the procession which ended in feeble, 

 violent speeches against the Army and the Rich, in four 

 arrests and an imprisonment. For they spoke in voices 

 gentle with hunger. They were angry and uttered 

 curses. One waved an arm against a palace, an arm that 

 could scarcely hold out a revolver even were all the kings 

 sitting in a row to tempt him. In the crowd and disturb- 

 ance the leader fell and fainted. They propped him in 

 their arms and cleared a space about him. " Death of 

 Nelson," suggested an onlooker, laughing, as he observed 

 the attitude and the knee-breeches. " If he had only a 

 crown of thorns . . ." said another, pleased by the group. 

 " Wants a bit of skilly and real hard work," said a third. 



