Boston (Mass.) -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Science fiction; Time travel -- Fiction
Justin thought back to the soft-spoken man who had sat in the white
leather armchair on the far side of his desk, the man who had asked him
for two million dollars to support his Missionist movement. He thought
back to the meeting in the Garden he had attended the night before--a
meeting attended by twenty thousand quiet intent hopeful people, by
many thousands more who had listened via loud-speakers outside in the
streets.
Henri Dubois did preach the Golden Rule, the ideals of cooperation
and humanity toward one's fellows, as the world's only salvation.
It wasn't quite that simple, of course--but the Golden Rule was its
essence, a Golden Rule to be practiced not merely in church on Sundays
but seven days a week.
And Missionism, as preached by Henri Dubois, was sweeping the country.
Dubois had received more than fifty thousand dollars in spontaneous
gifts from the lecture the night before--and before noon that day.
Yet he felt unable to spend it in support of his movement lest such
spending should lend aid to possible smears of fraud and graft later.
And Dubois needed two millions. He wanted the bank to use his huge
backlog of contributions as collateral on a loan.
"It will save you many times that sum," he had said, leaning forward
and resting a forearm on Justin's desk. "Consider--Missionism's
widespread adoption will mean cooperation rather than competition. It
will mean that, instead of wasteful conflict between selfishly warring
groups--say of contractors versus unions--you'll have voluntary union.
It will mean, to take a specific instance...."
Justin had been, was still, of more than half a mind to grant the
evangelist what he asked. For Missionism was catching on, would soon be
sweeping not the country but the world. Yet Corinne Forrester, Dubois'
woman, had come back later to ask Justin to refuse the loan.
Dark, slimly flamboyant, a smoker of dark Cuban cigarettes, Mrs.
Forrester was a factor to be reckoned with. She had left her
gloves--deliberately, he suspected--had returned for them and said,
"Mr. Justin, I have loved Henri Dubois for more years than I intend to
admit. Until recently he has loved me as well.
"Now, thanks to Missionism, I am losing him. I gave up a perfectly
good family and home and husband for Henri--but I cannot compete with
millions of rivals. I'm not an ingenue any longer and I am not the sort
of woman who can exist for long without a man."
"This hardly seems to concern--" he had begun.
And, dark eyes disturbingly fixed on his, she had said, "Mr.
Justin--you're not the sort of man who should live long without a
woman. There are a hundred little signs--restlessness, too-rigid
control, vast energy uncompensated." Then, rising, "I shall call you
tomorrow at five. And perhaps...."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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