"Sure! If only you"d smashed a few rules yourself. Take that girl and her partner they arrested the other day. They don"t whine. They"re behind the bars, but still cussing the Government. You"ve got to respect fighters like that Liebknecht the Germans killed, and that Rosa What"s-Her-Name. They were game. But you people, you try to put on all their airs without taking their chances. That"s why you make me so tired--always keeping your martyr"s halo polished and handy where you can slip it out of a pocket when you get just what you"ve been asking for."
"You"re not too subtle, are you? But then one could hardly expect subtlety--"
Merle was again almost annoyed.
"Subtle be jiggered! Do you think you people are subtle? About as subtle as a ton of bricks. All your talk in that magazine about this being a land of the dollar, no ideals, no spirituality, a land of money-grubbers--all that other stuff! Say, I want to tell you this is the least money-grubbing land there is! You people would know that if you had any subtlety. Maybe you did know it. We went into that sc.r.a.p for an ideal, and we"re the only country that did. France might have gone for an ideal, but France had to fight, anyway.
"England? Do you think England went in only to save poor little Belgium? She herself was the next dish on the bill of fare. But we went in out of general damfoolishness--for an ideal--this country you said didn"t have any. We don"t care about money--less than any of those people. Watch a Frenchman count his coppers, or an Englishman that carries his in a change purse and talks about pounds but really thinks in shillings. We carry our money loose and throw it away.
"If this country had been what your sniveling little magazine called it we"d never have gone into that fight. You"re not even subtle enough to know that much. We knew it would cost like h.e.l.l, but we knew it was a great thing to do. Not another nation on earth would have gone in for that reason. That"s the trouble with you poor little shut-ins; you decide the country hasn"t any ideals because someone runs a stockyard out in Chicago or a foundry in Pittsburgh. G.o.d help you people if you"d had your way about the war! The Germans would be taking that nonsense out of you by this time. And to think you had me kind of ashamed when I went over! I thought you knew something then." He concluded on a note almost plaintive.
Merle had grown visibly impatient.
"My dear fellow, really! Your point of view is interesting enough, even if all too common. You are true to type, but so crude a type--so crude!"
"Sure, I"m crude! The country itself is crude, I guess. But it takes a crude country to have ideals--ideals with guts. Your type isn"t crude, I suppose, but it hasn"t any ideals, either."
"No ideals! No ideals! Ah, but that"s the best thing you"ve said!"
He laughed masterfully, waving aside the monstrous accusation.
"Well, maybe it is the best thing I"ve said. You haven"t any ideals that would get any action out of you. You might tear down a house, but you"d never build one. No two of you could agree on a plan. Every one of you is too conceited about himself. If you had the guts to upset the Government to-morrow you"d be fighting among yourselves before night, and you"d have a chief or a king over you the next day, just as surely as they got one in Russia. It"ll take them a hundred years over there to get back to as good a government as we have right now.
"You folks haven"t any ideals except to show yourselves off. That"s my private opinion. The way you used to tell me I didn"t have any form in golf. You people are all gesture; you can get up on a platform and take perfect practice swings at a government, but you can"t hit the ball. You used to take bully practice swings at golf, but you couldn"t hit the ball because you didn"t have any ideal. You were a good shadow golfer, like a shadow boxer that can hit dandy blows when he"s. .h.i.tting at nothing. Shadow stuff, shadow ideals, shadow thinkers--that"s what you people are--spoiled children pretending you"re deep thinkers."
Merle turned wearily to a sheaf of papers at his hand.
"You"ll see one day," he said, quietly, "and it won"t be a far day.
Nothing now, not even the brute force of your type, can r.e.t.a.r.d the sweep of the revolution. The wave is shaping, the crest is formed. Six months from now--a year at most----"
He gestured with a hand ominously.
Wilbur briefly considered this prophecy.
"Oh, I know things look exciting here, but why wouldn"t they after the turnover they"ve had? And I know there"s grafting and profiteering and high prices and rotten spots in the Government, but why not? That"s another trouble with you people: you seem to think that some form of government will be perfect. You seem to expect a perfect government from imperfect human beings."
"Ah," broke in Merle, "I recognize that! That"s some of the dear old Dave Cowan talk."
"Well, don"t turn it down just on that account. Sometimes he isn"t so crazy. He sees through you people. He knows you would take all you could get in this world just as quick as the rest of us. He knows that much."
Merle waved it aside.
"Six months from now--a year at the most! A thrill of freedom has run through the people!"
Wilbur had relaxed in his chair. He spoke more lightly, scanning the face of his brother with veiled curiosity.
"By the way, speaking of revolutions, there"s been kind of a one at Newbern; kind of a family revolution. A little one, but plenty of kick in it. They want you to come back and be a good boy. That"s really what I came down here to say for them. Will you come back with me?"
Merle drew himself up--injured.
"Go back! Back to what? When my work is here, my heart, my life? I"ve let you talk because you"re my brother. And you"re so navely honest in your talk about our wonderful country and its idealism and the contemptible defects of a few of us who have the long vision! But I"ve let you talk, and now I must tell you that I am with this cause to the end. I can"t expect your sympathy, or the sympathy of my people back there, but I must go my own way without it, fight my own battle--"
He was interrupted in a tone he did not like.
"Sympathy from the folks back there? Say, what do you mean--sympathy?
Did I tell you what this revolution back there was all about? Did I tell you they"ve shut down on you?"
"You didn"t! I still don"t get your meaning."
"You cast them off, didn"t you?"
"Oh!" A white hand deprecated this. "That"s Sharon Whipple talk--his famous brand of horse humour. Surely, you won"t say he"s too subtle!"
"Well, anyway, you said you couldn"t accept anything more from them when you left; you were going to work with your hands, and so forth. You weren"t going to take any more of their tainted money."
"I"ve no doubt dear old Sharon would put it as delicately as that."
"Well, did you work with your hands? Have you had to be a toiler?"
"Oh, naturally I had resources! But might I ask"--Merle said it with chill dignity--"may I inquire just what relation this might have----"
"You won"t have resources any longer."
"Eh?" Merle this time did not wave. He stared stonily at his informant.
"That was the revolution. They called each other down and found that every last one of them had been sending you money, each thinking he was the only one and no one wanting you to starve. Even your dear old Sharon Whipple kicked in every month. No wonder I didn"t find you in a tenement."
"Preposterous!" expostulated Merle.
"Wasn"t it? Anyway, they all got mad at each other, and then they all got mad at you; then they swore an oath or something." He paused impressively. "No more checks!"
"Preposterous!" Merle again murmured.
"But kind of plausible, wasn"t it? Sharon wasn"t any madder than the others when they found each other out. Mrs. Harvey D. is the only one they think they can"t trust now. They"re going to watch that woman"s funds. Say, anything she gets through the lines to you--won"t keep you from toiling!"
"Poor Mother Ella!" murmured Merle, his gaze remotely upon the woman.
"She has always been so fond of me."
"They"re all fond of you, for that matter, I think they"re fonder of you than if you"d been born there. But still they"re rank Bolsheviks right now. They confiscated your estates."
"I didn"t need you to tell me they"re fond of me," retorted Merle with recovered spirit. He sighed. "They must have missed me horribly this last year." There was contrition in his tone. "I suppose I should have taken time to think of that, but you"ll never know how my work here has engrossed me. I suppose one always does sacrifice to ideals. Still, I owed them something--I should have remembered that." He closed on a note of regret.
"Well, you better go back with me. They"ll be mighty glad to see you."
"We can make that eleven-forty-eight if we hurry," he said. "I"ll have to change a few things."
He bustled cheerily into a bedroom. As he moved about there he whistled the "Ma.r.s.eillaise."