“Yes, this morning, for instance, that man informed me that he was a better man than I, and that his country could lick mine. Well, in my heart I knew he was wrong on both points, and that the precise contrary was the fact. As far as essentials go, I think we were pretty equal in the contest of conceit.”
“But you didn’t tell him what you thought,” remarked Olive.
“No, that was the difference of tongue, not of heart,” replied Brother Green.
“I didn’t know you were so severe in your criticisms and judgments. I wonder much what you really think of Perfection City,” said Olive, looking at him curiously. She had never particularly noticed him hitherto, and had not realized that he could have a store of knowledge of many things which lay far outside her experience.
“I think Perfection City will do good,” said Brother Green with conviction.
“Do you, and why?” asked Olive.
“Any honest human effort to benefit the world and raise mankind does good,” said Brother Green.
“But people have done such different things and all from a desire to do what seemed to them good,” objected Olive with feminine vagueness.
“I consider they have done good if their purpose was single-hearted,” maintained Brother Green.
“They didn’t succeed in doing what they aimed at very often, at all events,” observed Olive, “something quite different came out of their endeavours from what they had expected.”