The young man looked at Barbara as much as to say, "I knew I could trust you to take the only intelligent view."
"It's run," he said, "by a few imbeciles, like Sir Maurice Gedge.
They're scared out of their lives of Bolshevism."
"Do you mean to say that Bolshevism isn't dangerous?"
"Not in this country."
"Perhaps, then, you'd like to see a Soviet Government in this country?"
"I didn't say so."
"But I understand that you uphold Bolshevism?"
"I don't uphold funk. But," said Ralph, "there's rather more in it than that. It's being engineered. It's a deliberate, dishonest, and malicious attempt to discredit Labour."
"Absurd," said Mr. Waddington. "You show that you are ignorant of the very principles of the League."
If he recognized Ralph's youth, it was only to despise it as crude and uninformed.