“That doesn't cover the whole ground,” said Evans.
“And you think that poor boy is troubled—is really suffering from a sense of inferiority to the other young people?”
“Oh, I don't say certainly. Perhaps not. But if he were, what should you say was the best thing for him to do? Remain a servant; cast his lot with these outcasts; or try to separate and distinguish himself from them, as we all do? Come; we live in the world,—which isn't so bad, though it's pretty stupid. He couldn't change it. Now, what ought he to do?”
Sewell mused a while without answering anything. Then he said with a smile, “It's very much simpler to fit people for the other world than for this, don't you think?”
“Yes, it is. It was a cold day for the clergy when it was imagined that they ought to do both.”
“Well,” said Sewell, rising to follow his friend to the door, “I will come to see Barker, and try to talk with him. He's a very complicated problem. I supposed that I had merely his material prosperity to provide for, after getting him down here, but if I have to reconcile him to the constitution of society!——”
“Yes,” said Evans. “I wish you'd let me know the result of your labours. I think I could make a very incisive article on the subject. The topic is always an attractive one. There is nobody who doesn't feel that somebody else is taking on airs with him, and ought to have his comb cut. Or, if you should happen to prove to Barker that his ignominy is in accordance with the Development Theory, and is a necessary Survival, or something of that sort, don't you see what a card it would be for us with the better classes?”
They went downstairs together, and at the street door Evans stopped again. “Or, I'll tell you what. Make it a simple study of Barker's mind—a sort of psychological interview, and then with what I've been able to get from him we can present the impression that Boston makes upon a young, fresh, shrewd mind. That would be something rather new, wouldn't it? Come! the Afternoon would make it worth your while. And then you could work it into a sermon afterwards.”
“You shameless reprobate!” said Sewell, laying his hand affectionately on his friend's arm.
There was nothing in Lemuel's case that seemed to him urgent, and he did not go to see him at once. In the meantime, Fast Day came, and Lemuel got away at last to pay his first visit home.