'If one could only hope that one could help it forward!' sighed Clare.
'Hope? We know it. These things will be. It is a question of the little sooner or the little later. There is no standing still. He that is not with us is against us. But we shall triumph in the end. We know that all this misery, all this sin, all this selfishness, all this stupidity even, are the direct result of the social milieu. It is this knowledge that makes us the deadly enemies of the Capitalist system, and that is why we are hated by those who profit by it.'
He spoke in a low voice, full of suppressed excitement. When he ended the girl drew a long breath. He saw the white violets on her bosom rise and fall slowly twice before he spoke again. Then he said, with a smile,—
'If I have not given you advice, I have at least given you a sermon. You see I already look upon you as one of us, or I should not have dared to outrage conventionalities by speaking in earnest in a drawing-room.'
'Oh, my dear Mr Petrovitch,' exclaimed Mrs Quaid, who pausing out of breath from her exertions in the cause of education, had caught the last dozen words, 'you are really too severe! I hope all of us, at anyrate, always speak in earnest, though of course, some of us are more earnest than others. That delightful Count Litvinoff, now—so devoted, and yet so cheerful; I'm so sorry he has not come to-night.'
'He seems to be a universal favourite,' answered Petrovitch, who had risen on his hostess's approach, and now stood with his hand on the back of Clare's chair.
'Yes, and you who know him, of course know how well he deserves all our good opinions.' She glanced almost imperceptibly at Clare. Petrovitch noted the glance, and he fancied that Clare noted it too, and that it called up a faint blush into her face. But Mrs Quaid's drawing-room was discreetly lighted, and perhaps he was mistaken.
'I should never forgive myself,' the good lady went on, 'if I missed this beautiful opportunity of performing such a delightful task—bringing two such distinguished fellow-workers together. We must fix an early evening for you both to dine here. It will be charming.'
Petrovitch bowed.
As Hirsch and Petrovitch went away together, the Austrian said,—