Chapter VIII
AT dinner the following evening Carey announced that the subject for discussion that night was economic. A profound gloom fell on the company.
"I hate the word," said the Duchess. "When any one proposes some generous scheme the immediate answer is that it is 'uneconomic.' I believe that the whole thing is a false science, invented by the trading classes to conceal their own rapacity. They identify their penny–wise cunning with the laws of nature and claim a divine sanction for their misdeeds. Besides, I am sick of the kind of argument we have heard so much of for the past two years. To my mind even the few economic laws which are certain may very properly be overridden for the sake of higher interests. You tell me that Protection is good or bad economics, and I don't care a
