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“Quite right,” said Patsy, nodding energetically.

“But our friend made little headway because the sympathies of the people were not with him.”

“Why not, sir?” inquired Beth, while Kenneth sat inwardly groaning at this baring of his terrible experiences.

“Because through custom they had come to tolerate such things, and could see no harm in them,” replied the lawyer. “They permit their buildings which face the roads to be covered with big advertisements, and the fences are decorated in the same way. In some places a sign-board has been built in their yards or fields, advertising medicines or groceries or tobacco. In other words, our country roads and country homes have become mere advertising mediums to proclaim the goods of more or less unscrupulous manufacturers, and so all their attractiveness is destroyed. Kenneth, being a man of artistic instincts and loving country scenes, resented this invasion of commercialism and tried to fight it.”

“And so ran my head against a stone wall,” added the young man, with a bitter laugh.