“I have a friend with the troops there, nearly a year, and I’ve had some news that worries me. I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Said Mr. Irving: “Are you asking me as a student, or as a friend?”
“Why,” replied Bunny, a little puzzled, “I’d be glad to be a friend, if I might. What is the difference?”
“The difference,” said the other, “might be the loss of my position in the university.”
Bunny flushed, embarrassed. “I hadn’t thought of anything like that, Mr. Irving.”
“I’ll put it to you bluntly, Ross. I spent all I had saved on relief work in Europe and came home broke. Now I am educating a young sister, and they are paying me the munificent salary of thirteen hundred a year. I am due to get a rise of two hundred next year, and the matter of contracts comes up this month. If it is reported that I am defending Bolshevism to my students, I won’t get a contract, either here or anywhere else.”
“Oh, but Mr. Irving, I wouldn’t dream of reporting you!”
“You wouldn’t need to. You’d only need to tell your parents or your friends what I think is the reason our troops are in Siberia, and they would consider it their moral duty to report me.”
“Is it as bad as that?” said Bunny.
“It’s so bad that I don’t see how it could be worse,” said Mr. Irving. “I will answer your question provided you agree that I am talking as a friend, and that you won’t mention the conversation to anyone else.” And you can see how deeply Bunny had fallen into the toils of Bolshevism, when he was willing to agree to a proposition such as that!