Page:Out of due time, Ward, 1906.djvu/57

 VI.

my talk with Mr. Sutcliffe that afternoon, I listened more attentively to the Count's conversation during dinner. To me my host was courteous, but as if he were not quite conscious of my being there at all. To George Sutcliffe he talked of Church history, and to me the vividness of his word-pictures was astonishing. I remember wondering if it were with intention that he so often alluded to the use which great rulers and leaders made of the baser kind of humanity.

"You are such an Idealist," he said to George, "you should realise that in all ages there has been some one equivalent to the modern journalist. At one time he was a letter writer, at another a playwright, often a poet. At all times there needs must be interpreters between the thinker and the crowd."

"No, I'm not an Idealist," laughed the other, "I'm a practical man, therefore I see more of the proportion of things. You, being an Idealist, when you condescend to practical matters deal with everything in a mass without discrimination. You don't realise journalism as a profession embracing heights and depths. You don't care to know if the man who advertises your ideas is a serious, conscientious man of honour or a mere gossip. You are too much above and apart from the world of practical life to deal with it successfully."

"Perhaps there is something in what you say," said the 47