“Work?” repeated Everett. “Why, she has no work.”
“And doth all thy family belong to the drones?” Walda asked. “How is it that out in the world some men and women are permitted to be idle while others labor?”
“Now, Walda, you have hit upon one of the great social problems. Out in the world the people do not work for the common good. Selfishness rules. Some men and some women are born to wealth, and some are born to poverty.”
“Thou meanest that some men are like Solomon and others are like the beggars that lay outside the gates of Jerusalem?”
“Yes, that is what I mean,” said Everett.
“Art thou like Solomon? Hast thou gold that thou keepest from the poor and hungry?” Walda placed the picture upon the table and withdrew several steps from Everett.
“I am not like Solomon, Walda,” Everett replied, with an uncomfortable feeling that he belonged to a useless class.
“But you have money so that you live without work?”
“Yes,” admitted Everett, with some reluctance.
“He carrieth much silver with him,” said Hans Peter, who had listened intently to the conversation. “He hath tossed me many a piece when I have run errands for him.”