You will never know that state; if you affected it
you would be purely contemptible. And I myself have outgrown it.'
'But you must not think that I am inhuman,' said Hubert. 'The sight
of distress touches me deeply. To the individual poor man or woman I
would give my last penny. It is when they rise against me as a class
that I become pitiless.'
'I understand you perfectly, though I have not the same prejudices.
My old zeal lingers with me in the form of tolerance. I can enter
into the mind of a furious proletarian as easily as into the feeling
which you represent.'
'But how did your zeal come to an end?'
'In this way; I worked under the conditions I have described to you
till I was nearly thirty. Then. I broke down physically. At the same
time it happened that I inherited a small competency. I went abroad,
lived in Italy for a couple of years. I left England with the firm
intention of getting my health and then returning to work harder
than ever. But during those two years I educated myself. When I
reached England again I found that it was. impossible to enter again
on the old path; I should have had to force myself; it would have
been an instance of the kind of thing you suggest in explanation of
Westlake's persistence. Fortunately I yielded to my better sense and
altogether shunned the life of towns.
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