Part 25 (1/2)
”That secures the chairmans.h.i.+p? But am I at all likely to be accepted?”
”From what I hear, n.o.body suspects you of taking any great interest in the life of the poor. They have therefore no reason to be afraid of you.”
”I see,” said Max. ”As a figure-head chairman I might even be valuable.”
”Very, I have no doubt.”
”Part of the game?”
”Royalty and Trade are supposed to be natural allies,” remarked Sister Jenifer.
Max was startled at her discernment. ”Oh, but that is true!” he cried.
”How wonderful, then, that you should be able to trust me at all.”
This set her smiling. ”I had the advantage to begin with of not knowing who you were.”
”And that gave you a start.”
”No, finding you out gave me the start.”
”You certainly have not lost time.”
”That I cannot say, till I have your answer.” There was no temporizing here.
Max thought for a while, then drew breath and spoke. ”I want you quite to understand,” he said, ”that if I take up this work it will be very largely for a personal reason. I daresay I shall, as you say, 'take fire' when I know more about it; but at present I am not so moved.
Commissions do not attract me; and what I undertake I shall do solely on faith--faith in you. Are you content that it should be so?”
”For a beginning, yes.”
”Very well; something else follows. I shall need you for my guide.”
”I am always here at certain hours,” she said. ”But there are others who know far more than I.”
He let that point go unregarded.
”Then I may come to you for help?”
”Always, if really you need it.”
”My needs shall be as real as I can make them,” said Max. ”How am I to begin?”
She named one or two books. ”If you follow up what you read there,” she said, ”you will find most of it practically demonstrated in this district alone. For instance, we have a strike on just now among our tailors and s.h.i.+rt-makers; the men have made the women come out with them; they did not want to--women can exist under conditions where men cannot. Go and mix with them, be among them for hours, attend their street-corner meetings; you will hardly hear two ideas of any practical value, but you will get many. It isn't theory that is wanted,--it is that the life which thousands are living should be known and realized.
When the eye has seen, the heart follows. All we really want is brotherhood; but how are we to bring it about?”
”From that I am furthest away of all,” said Prince Max.
”No, no,” she cried; ”that is the great mistake! If kings are not the very symbol of our community then they have no value left. May I tell you two of the most kingly things I ever heard done in the present day?
The one was by the old King of Montenegro, the smallest of the Balkan States. He found that his chief gentry were becoming lazy, too proud to put their hands to labor--making idleness a cla.s.s distinction. He sat down in the courtyard of his palace and began to make shoes, and went on making them daily while he held his Court and administered justice; and so the new folly died.”