IX
Unexpectedly the companionships of the little house in Dickinson Street failed to lighten George's discontented humour. Mrs. Bailly's question lingered in his mind, coupling itself there with her disappointment that he, instead of Lambert, hadn't married Betty; and, when she retired, the tutor went back to his unwelcome demands of the day before. Hadn't George made anything of his great experience? Was it possible it had left him quite unchanged? What were his immediate plans, anyway?
"You may as well understand, sir," George broke in, impatiently, "that I am going to stay right in Wall Street and make as much money and get as much power as I can."
"Why? In the name of heaven, why?" Bailly asked, irritably. "You are already a very rich man. You've dug for treasure and found it, but can you tell me you've kept your hands clean? Money is merely a conception—a false one. Capitalism will pass from the world."
George grunted.
"With the last two surviving human beings."
"Mockery won't keep you blind always," Bailly said, "to the strivings of men in the mines and the factories——"
"And in the Senate and the House," George jeered, "and in Russia and Germany, and in little, ambitious corners. If you're against the League of Nations it's because, like all those people, you're willing Rome should burn as long as personal causes can be fostered and selfish schemes forwarded. No agitator, naturally, wants the suffering world given a sedative——"
Bailly smiled.
"Even if you're wrong-headed, I'm glad to hear you talk that way. At last you're thinking of humanity."
"I'm thinking of myself," George snapped.
Bailly shook his head.
"I believe you're talking from your heart."
"I'm talking from a smashed leg," George cried, "and I'm sleepy and tired and cross, and I guess I'd better go to bed."
"It all runs back to the beginning," Bailly said in a discouraged voice. "I'm afraid you'll never learn the meaning of service."
George sprang up, wincing. Bailly's wrinkled face softened; his young eyes filled with sympathy.
"Does that wound still bother you, George?"
"Yes, sir," George answered, softly. "I guess it bothers as much as it ever did."