“Of a fool,” promptly put in Marsten, seeing her hesitation.
“Well, yes,” said Edna, laughing confidentially; “although that is putting it a little strongly, and is not quite what I intended to say. But I don’t think so. He may be frivolous—or rather he may have been frivolous, but that was before he came to recognize his responsibilities. I think him a very earnest young man, and he is exceedingly humble about it, saying that he hopes his earnestness will make up for any lack of ability that——”
“Then he needs all the earnestness he can bring to bear upon the subject.”
“Oh, he realizes that,” cried Edna, enthusiastically. “If there is only some one to point him the way, he says, he will do everything that lies in his power to assist the workingman in bettering his condition. I have told him that his own vacillation of mind is his worst enemy.”
“He vacillates, does he?”
“Dreadfully. He will leave here to-day, for instance, thoroughly convinced that a certain course of action is right. To-morrow he will return, having thought over it, and he has ever so many objections that he is not clear about. He says—which is quite true—that it is a most intricate question which one must look upon in all its bearings; otherwise mistakes are sure to be made.”
“That is why he does nothing, I suppose. Then he is sure of not making any mistake.”
Something of bitterness in the young man’s tone caused the girl to look at him in surprise. Surely two people who had the interests of the workingman so much at heart as both Hope and Marsten ought to be glad of any help one could give the other; yet Marsten did not seem to relish hearing of the unselfish and lofty aims of Barney.
“Why do you say he does nothing?”
“Well, when I called upon him before the strike began, hoping he would use his influence to avert trouble, he showed no desire to ameliorate any one’s condition but his own. He was comfortable and happy, so why trouble about the men? ‘Foolish beggars,’ he called them, when I told him they had voted to go on strike.”