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Show THE PARLOR SOCIALIST By Anna Strunsky "Walling. How insidious it is! The exquisite woman standing in the middle of the room receiving her friends. Her interest in him, for the moment so unfeigned, un-feigned, her sympathy so quick and unreserved she draws him irresistibly to cross over to where she stands in the nebulous clouds that always, unaware to him, have shrouded her class. So subtly and unalterably different from him, yet she draws him irresistibly and suddenly he traverses the world yawning between them. Something begins to give way his belief In the people, In their inviolate strength, in their Inalienable right to all of life. Something gives way, something begins to sink his faith, his hope flicker and almost go out. He is not aware of his sudden emptiness. He feels wonderfully at home in the camp of the enemy, wonderfully at ease in the skin-lined den of the despoilers. The fire in the hearth leaps and casts beautiful beauti-ful lights over the exquisite face of his hostess, over the unparalleled tapestries on the wall. Meaningless, hopeless, purposeless he stays on. The waiting world recedes. Empty and cold he remains by the treacherous treacher-ous warmth of the enemy's hearth. The New Review. |