“Two wrongs do not make a right, and I do not think you set about remedying matters in the right way. You had every opportunity here. You had escaped the pressure of industrialism. You had good brains.”
“Brains!” cried René. “I had escaped from industrialism only to talk about it.”
“We are doing useful work. The defects of the system are slowly being recognized as a result of our investigations.”
“Can’t you realize them without investigation? Aren’t they as plain as the nose on your face?”
“You can’t find a remedy without investigation. That leads to mere sentimental socialism. But why need we quarrel about that? You didn’t like the work. I hope you found more satisfaction in your vagabondage.”
“London is just as bad, rather worse, because the wickedness of it all is glossed over with a kind of boastfulness. Here you either make money or you don’t. There, as far as I can see, your only chance is to spend money: not that I saw much of that except from the outside; still I did see all sorts and kinds of people, and you can make rough conclusions about them.”
“You don’t mind my suggesting that you were hardly in a condition to make impartial observations?”
“We don’t seem able to use the same terms. You still think I was a fool not to stay in my nice little home, with my nice little job and my nice little income.”
“I don’t judge you. I only say that if everybody were to do the same——”
“I only wish more people would. There’d soon be an end of congestion. I only came round to-night because I couldn’t stand the sight of my brother settling down to his nice little home and my mother fast freezing into a nice old lady—and then I find you terrified lest I should enter and pollute your nice little home. I tell you, what I have seen to-day has settled me. I came up here in a muddle about it all, half feeling that I had made an ass of myself, but I’m absolutely certain now——”