“I'm afraid that would only make the matter worse,” she said, with an uneasy laugh.
The minister was silent on his side of the stove.
“But do I understand you to say,” she demanded, “that there can be no love at all, no kindness, between the rich and the poor? God tells us all to love one another.”
“Surely,” said the minister. “Would you suffer such a slight as your friends propose, to be offered to any one you loved?”
She did not answer, and he continued, thoughtfully: “I suppose that if a poor person could do a rich person a kindness which cost him some sacrifice, he might love him. In that case there could be love between the rich and the poor.”
“And there could be no love if a rich man did the same?”
“Oh yes,” the minister said—“upon the same ground. Only, the rich man would have to make a sacrifice first that he would really feel.”
“Then you mean to say that people can't do any good at all with their money?” Annie asked.
“Money is a palliative, but it can't cure. It can sometimes create a bond of gratitude perhaps, but it can't create sympathy between rich and poor.”
“But why can't it?”