Why? The people are
not ill-treated. On the contrary, I should call them pampered."
"You do not understand," she explained earnestly. "In Russia it
was the aristocracy who oppressed the people, shamefully and
malevolently. In England it is the bourgeoisie who rule the
country and stand in the light of Labour. It is the middleman,
the profiteer, the new capitalist here who has become an ugly and
a dominant power. Labour has the means by which to assert itself
and to claim its rights, but has never possessed the leaders or
the training. That has been the subject of my lectures over here
from the beginning. I want to teach the people how to crush the
middleman. I want to show them how to discover and to utilise
their strength."
"Is not that a little dangerous?" he enquired. "You might easily
produce a state of chaos."
"For a time, perhaps," she admitted, "but never for long. You
see, the British have one transcendental quality; they possess
common sense. They are not idealists like the Russians. The men
with whom I mix neither walk with their heads turned to the clouds
nor do they grope about amongst the mud. They just look straight
ahead of them, and they ask for what they see in the path."
"I see," he murmured. "And now, having reached just this stage in
our conversation, let me ask you this. You read the newspapers?"
"Diligently," she assured him.
"Are you aware of a very curious note of unrest during the last
few days--hints at a crisis in the war which nothing in the
military situation seems to justify--vague but rather gloomy
suggestions of an early peace?"
"Every one is talking about it," she agreed.
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