IV--UNDERNEATH

Under the stars one may reach upward and touch resignation, whatever the

evil thing may be, but in the heat and stress of the day's work we lapse

again, come disgust and anger and intolerable moods. How little is all

our magnanimity--an accident! a phase! The very Saints of old had first

to flee the world. And Denton and his Elizabeth could not flee their

world, no longer were there open roads to unclaimed lands where men

might live freely--however hardly--and keep their souls in peace. The

city had swallowed up mankind.

For a time these two Labour Serfs were kept at their original

occupations, she at her brass stamping and Denton at his press; and then

came a move for him that brought with it fresh and still bitterer

experiences of life in the underways of the great city. He was

transferred to the care of a rather more elaborate press in the central

factory of the London Tile Trust.

In this new situation he had to work in a long vaulted room with a

number of other men, for the most part born Labour Serfs. He came to

this intercourse reluctantly. His upbringing had been refined, and,

until his ill fortune had brought him to that costume, he had never

spoken in his life, except by way of command or some immediate

necessity, to the white-faced wearers of the blue canvas. Now at last

came contact; he had to work beside them, share their tools, eat with

them. To both Elizabeth and himself this seemed a further degradation.

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Tales of Space and Time