I confess I was a good deal cast down as I read this letter.
“What interests are so important?” I asked myself, “that they should keep friends apart?”
But I was given only a moment for reflection for the door opened and my friend Bill, together with R—— D—— and several other members of the committee, came out. I put the letter in my pocket, and for a moment my brain never worked under higher pressure. What should I say to them now? How could I explain myself?
Bill Hahn was evidently labouring under considerable excitement, but R—— D—— was as calm as a judge. He sat down in the chair opposite and said to me:
“We've been figuring out this proposition of Mr. Vedder's. Your idea is all right, and it would be a fine thing if we could really get together as you suggest upon terms of common understanding and friendship.”
“Just what Mr. Vedder said,” I exclaimed.
“Yes,” he continued, “it's all right in theory; but in this case it simply won't work. Don't you see it's got to be war? Your friend and I could probably understand each other—but this is a class war. It's all or nothing with us, and your friend Vedder knows it as well as we do.”
After some further argument and explanation, I said:
“I see: and this is Socialism.”
“Yes,” said the great R—— D——, “this is Socialism.”