To which the man of business was moved to answer, with scorn: “Leave that to my son and me, if you please! When Lanny learns that 'modern thought' means class hate, greed, and murder, he may decide to remain an old-fashioned thinker like his father.”
“The fond father's dream throughout the ages!” exclaimed the other, in a tone of pity, even more exasperating than one of ridicule. “Let my son be exactly like me in all things! Let him think exactly what I think — and so he will be perfect! But the world is changing, and not all the fathers leagued together can stop it, or keep the sons from knowing about it.”
“My son has his own mind,” said the father. “He will judge for himself.”
“You say that,” answered the revolutionist, “but you don't feel nearly as secure as you pretend. Why else should you be so worried when someone presents a new idea to Lanny's mind? Don't you suppose he notices that? Don't you suppose he asks himself what it means?”
That was touching Robbie Budd on the rawest spot in his soul. The idea that anybody could claim to know Lanny better than his father knew him! The idea that the youth might be hiding things, that doubts and differences might be lurking in his mind, that the replica of Robbie's self might be turning traitor to him! In the father's subconscious mind Lanny remained a child, a budding youth, something that had to be guarded and cherished; so the feelings that stirred the father's soul were not so different from the jealous rage of the forest monarch over some sleek and slender doe.
“You are clever, Jesse,” said he; “but I think Lanny understands the malice in your heart.”,
“I'm sorry I can't call you clever,” retorted the other. “Your world is coming to an end. The thousands of your wage slaves have some other purpose than to build a throne for you to sit on.”
“Listen, Uncle Jesse,” interposed Lanny. “What's the use of all this ranting? You know you can't convince Robbie — ”
But the stags brushed him aside; they weren't interested in him any more, they were interested in their battle. “We'll be ready for them any time they choose to come,” declared Robbie. “We make machine guns!”
“You'll shoot them yourself?”