“I have thought a great deal about what you said to me the other day, about trying to make life better and all that,” said he with a certain self-consciousness, as if he was unaccustomed to speaking upon such a subject. Olive looked at him with bright clear eyes.
“I am very glad if anything I said could be of use to you, but I am myself very ignorant. I should like you to come and hear what Brother Wright says, and Ezra. Brother Wright is considered very eloquent. I can’t always understand him myself, but that is my own deficiency!”
“I would much prefer talking with you, Mrs. Weston,” said the stranger hastily. “I am very restive under men’s teaching, but I am docile enough when led by a woman’s gentle hand.”
“Why are you living here?” asked Olive suddenly. “You seem so unsuited to this life.”
“I am sick of civilization and all its horrors,” said he. “I wanted to get away to something fresh and new.”
“That is almost like what a Pioneer would say,” remarked Olive with a smile. “They don’t think very highly of what civilization has done so far.”
“Materially it has done much, morally it has done badly for a good number of human beings,” he remarked.
“I think you sound like a very hopeful convert to the principles of communism. Why don’t you come to Perfection City?” asked Olive.
“Would you be glad to see me there, Mrs. Weston?”
“Certainly, Mr. Perseus, and I should be so pleased to make you and my husband known to each other.”