Lud-in-the-Mist

by Hope Mirrlees

But gradually there had arisen a middle class. And this class had discovered — as it always does — that trade was seriously hampered by a ruler unchecked by a constitution, and by a ruthless, privileged class. Figuratively, these things were damming the Dawl.

For one thing, wealth had ceased to be a delicate, exotic blossom. It had become naturalized in Dorimare, and was now a hardy perennial, docilely renewing itself year after year, and needing no tending from the gardeners.

But, as everybody knows, legal rights can be but weaklings — puny little child princes, cowed by their bastard uncles, Precedent and Seniority.

“Suppose, Ambrose, that what we know at first hand is only this — that there is nothing to know?” said Master Nathaniel a little sadly.