After all, Society was responsible for the creation of this hybrid—the _dilettante_. The Upper Ten in its hours of _ennui_ had conceived this strange cross-breed; but in its mischievousness it had taken good care to endow their offspring with the same impotency that characterises the product of horse and donkey! Society loved these unfruitful children, it fondled them, shielded their deficiency from the world’s sneers, and although it had doomed them to eternal barrenness, still it guarded the approach to these home-made fetishes, and surrounded them with barriers with this inscription affixed: “Hands off.” But in the present emergency, Society showed itself ingrate towards these little mannikins who had amused it, and it turned away from them, to seek the help of the Music Hall artists, into whose arms the smart men and women of London Society threw themselves.
Thus the majority unconsciously worked at the regeneration of London; although they would have sneered had anyone told them that they were all endeavouring to realise the Socialist’s dream—self-government.
The proroguing of Parliament—for an indefinite period—had removed one stumbling-block on the road to that goal. Honourable members, Peers of the Realm, had migrated to their country seats, or retired to private life in town, awaiting patiently for better times; for they firmly believed that the country could not prosper without them, and they absolutely denied that the British lion could ever rest quiet with the reins of Government loose on his mane.
Was the Earl of Somerville conscious of his evolution? He was certainly developing into a seer, although he was in no danger of being carried away by speculative theories, as long as Danford stood at his elbow, raising his sarcastic voice whenever my lord was tempted to fly off at a tangent. When the latter suggested that they should consult the venerable scientists of Albemarle Street, Danford stopped him very sharply. “My lord, do not look to the Royal Institute for any explanation of this phenomenon. They have not yet grasped the cause of the storm, and remain quite obdurate in their opinions. They cannot understand what has suddenly occasioned the collapse of every loom in England; and I know for a fact, that they are actually meditating to lead back the men and women of the twentieth century to the primitive usage of the spindle!”