That's why I say I have no quarrel with radical doctrines--they
are coming, always coming, but"--Cord paused to give his words full
weight--"I hate the radical."
There was a little pause. Crystal, who had sunk into a low chair,
raised her eyes to Ben, as if she expected a passionate contradiction
from him, but it did not come.
"Yes," he said, after a moment, "that's all true, Mr. Cord--with
limitations; but, granting it, you've put my side, too. What are we to
say of the conservative--the man who has no vision of his own--who
has to go about stealing his beliefs from the other side? He's very
efficient at putting _them_ into effect--but efficient as a tool, as
a servant. Look at the mess he makes of his own game when he tries to
act on his own ideas. He crushes democracy with an iron efficiency,
and he creates communism. He closes the door to trade-unionism and
makes a revolution. That's efficiency for you. We radicals are not
so damned inefficient, while we let the conservatives do our work for
us."
"Well, let it be revolution, then," said Cord. "I believe you're
right. It's coming, but do you want to drag a girl like Crystal into
it? Think of her! Say you take her, as I suppose a young fellow like
you can do. She'd have perhaps ten years of an exciting division of
allegiance between your ideas and the way she had been brought up, and
the rest of her life (for, believe me, as we get older we all return
to our early traditions)--the rest of her life she'd spend regretting
the ties and environment of her youth.
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