She fed us and clothed us and sent us to school; and when she died we
buried her with the money she had put by for the purpose; and never a
penny of charity had ever soiled her hands. I can see them now. Talk of
your Chancellors of the Exchequer and their problems! She worked herself
to death, of course. Well, that's all right. One doesn't mind that
where one loves. If they would only let you. She had no opposition to
contend with--no thwarting and hampering at every turn--the very people
you are working for hounded on against you. The difficulty of a man like
myself, who wants to do something, who could do something, is that for
the best part of his life he is fighting to be allowed to do it. By the
time I've lived down their lies and got my chance, my energy will be
gone."
He knocked the ashes from his pipe and relit it.
"I've no quarrel with the rich," he said. "I don't care how many rich
men there are, so long as there are no poor. Who does? I was riding on
a bus the other day, and there was a man beside me with a bandaged head.
He'd been hurt in that railway smash at Morpeth.
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