ve
and law he worshipped would enfold him.

Alice smiled tenderly, and for the moment the street in front of her
danced in a mist. "And his perfect state! Shall we ever realize it?"

"We must hope so. Perhaps not in the form he sees it, but in the way
we work it out through a species of evolution. Think of the progress
we have made in the last five years. How many dark corners in the long
disused houses of our minds have been flooded with light!"

"Yes. Why have we made more progress in the past few years?"

Jeff's eyes held a gleam of humor. "This is a big country with enormous
resources. There used to be room for all the most active plunderers to
grab something. But lately the grabbing hasn't been so good. We have
discovered that the most powerful robbers are doing their snatching from
us. So we've suffered a moral awakening."

"You don't believe that," she said quickly.

"There's a good deal in the bread and butter interpretation of history.
The push of life, its pressure, drives us to think. Out of thought grow
new hopes and a broader vision."

"And then?"

"Pretty soon the thought will flood the world that we make our own
poverty, that God and nature have nothing to do with it. After that
we'll proceed to eliminate it."

"By means of Mr. Marchant's perfect state?"

"Not by any revolution of an hour probably. Society cannot change its
nature in a day. We'll pass gradually from our present state to a better
one, the new growing out of the old by generations of progress. But I
think we will pass into a form of socialism. It will be necessary to
repress the predatory instinct in us that has grown strong under the
present system. I don't much care whether you call it democracy or
socialism. We must recognize how interdependent we are and work together
for the common good."

They had come to the car line that would take her home. Up the hill a
trolley car was coming.

"May I not see you home?" Jeff dared to ask.

"You may."

They left the car at Lakeview Park and crossed it to The Brakes. Every
step of that walk led Jeff deeper into an excursion of endearment. It
was amazingly true that he trod beside her an acknowledged friend, a
secret lover. The turn of her head, the shadowy smile bubbling into
laughter, the gracious undulations of the body, indeed the whole dear
delight of her presence, belonged for that hour to him alone.

CHAPTER 21

Many a man has kept his self-respect through a long