Page:Robert Barr - Lord Stranleigh Philanthropist.djvu/211

 agree. In any case, I should prefer a cooler debating ground."

Stranleigh rose.

"I am much obliged for your kind reception of me. I realise that I am but an idler, while you are a very busy man."

"A working man, merely. It is the title I am proudest of holding. But you are quite mistaken in thinking my remark was a hint for you to go. Even my enemies admit that I am a plain-spoken person, and if I had wished your departure, I should have said so. There is one subject on which I should like further information. I heard vaguely in the spring that you made some experiments on one of your estates touching the welfare of the unemployed. I should like to know more about that."

"I am sorry to say, sir, it was a complete failure."

"Ah! Were you your own manager?"

"No, I was one of the unemployed. I engaged a very faithful, sympathetic, well-intentioned man as head of the scheme, and quite unknown to him, I accepted a spade and did my share of the digging, I wished to learn what the derelicts thought, from the inside, as it were."

"And what did they think?"