“It isn’t necessary they should,” Hughes answered, “though some of them do already. Several of the best friends of our cause are capitalists; and there are numbers of moneyed people who believe in the nationalization of the telegraphs, railroads, and expresses.”
“Those are merely the first steps,” urged the young man, “which may lead now’ere.”
“They are the first steps,” said Hughes, “and they are not to be taken over the bodies of men. We must advance together as brothers, marching abreast, to the music of our own heart-beats.”
“Good!” said Kane. Ray did not know whether he said it ironically or not. It made the short-haired girl turn round and look at him where he sat behind her.
“We, in Russia,” said another of the foreign-looking people, “have seen the futility of violence. The only force that finally prevails is love; and we must employ it with those that can feel it best—with the little children. The adult world is hopeless; but with the next generation we may do something—everything. The highest office is the teacher’s, but we must become as little children if we would teach them, who are of the kingdom of heaven. We must begin by learning of them.”
“It appears rather complicated,” said the young Englishman, gayly; and Ray heard Kane choke off a laugh into a kind of snort.
“Christ said He came to call sinners to repentance,” said the man who would have been the better for benzining. “He evidently thought there was some hope of grown-up people if they would cease to do evil.”
“And several of the disciples were elderly men,” the short-haired girl put in.
“Our Russian friend’s idea seems to be a version of our Indian policy,” said Kane. “Good adults, dead adults.”
“No, no. You don’t understand, all of you,” the Russian began, but Hughes interrupted him.