Page:Chesterton - Alarms and Discursions (Methuen, 1910).djvu/136



His rapid rattling mouth shut quite tight suddenly, and he looked steadily and triumphantly at me, with his head on one side. I opened my mouth, and the mere motion seemed to sting him to fresh verbal leaps.

"Yes," he said, "that's all very well. The Finland Group has accepted Bolger.  But," he said, suddenly lifting a long finger as if to stop me, "but--Pidge has replied.  His pamphlet is published. He has proved that Potential Social Rebuke is not a weapon of the true Anarchist.  He has shown that just as religious authority and political authority have gone, so must emotional authority and psychological authority.  He has shown--"

I stood up in a sort of daze. "I think you remarked," I said feebly, "that the mere common populace do not quite understand Anarchism--"Quite so," he said with burning swiftness; "as I said, they think any Anarchist is a man with a bomb, whereas--"

"But great heavens, man!" I said; "it's the man with the bomb that I understand! I wish you had half his sense.  What do I care how many German dons tie themselves in knots about how this society began? My only interest is about how soon it will end.  Do you see those fat white houses over in Park-lane, where your masters live?"