Darius was possibly a little uneasy in his mind about the world.
Possibly there had just now begun to form in his mind the conviction, in
which most men die, that all was not quite well with the world, and that
in particular his native country had contracted a fatal malady since he
was a boy.
He was a printer, and yet the General Election had not put sunshine in
his heart. And this was strange, for a general election is the brief
millennium of printers, especially of steam-printers who for dispatch
can beat all rivals. During a general election the question put by a
customer to a printer is not, "How much will it be?" but "How soon can I
have it?" There was no time for haggling about price; and indeed to
haggle about price would have been unworthy, seeing that every customer
(ordinary business being at a standstill), was engaged in the salvation
of England. Darius was a Liberal, but a quiet one, and he was
patronised by both political parties--blue and red. As a fact, neither
party could have done without him. His printing office had clattered
and thundered early and late, and more than once had joined the end of
one day's work to the beginning of another; and more than once had Big
James with his men and his boy (a regiment increased since 1873), stood
like plotters muttering in the yard at five minutes to twelve on Sunday
evening, waiting for midnight to sound, and Big James had unlocked the
door of the office on the new-born Monday, and work had instantly
commenced to continue till Monday was nearly dead of old age.
Once only had work been interrupted, and that was on a day when, a lot
of `blue jobs' being about, a squad of red fire-eaters had come up the
back alley with intent to answer arguments by thwackings and wreckings;
but the obstinacy of an oak door had fatigued them. The staff had
enjoyed that episode. Every member of it was well paid for overtime.
Darius could afford to pay conscientiously. In the printing trade,
prices were steadier then than they are now. But already the discovery
of competition was following upon the discovery of ventilation. Perhaps
Darius sniffed it from a distance, and was disturbed thereby.
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