We have all met those virtuous
persons who do good by proxy. But Paul had not. He had never come face
to face with the charity broker--the man who stands between the needy
and the giver, giving nothing himself, and living on his brokerage,
sitting in a comfortable chair, with his feet on a Turkey carpet in his
office on a main thoroughfare. Paul had met none of these, and the only
organized charity of which he was cognizant was the great Russian
Charity League, betrayed six months earlier to a government which has
ever turned its face against education and enlightenment. In this he had
taken no active part, but he had given largely of his great wealth. That
his name had figured on the list of families sold for a vast sum of
money to the authorities of the Ministry of the Interior seemed all too
sure. But he had had no intimation that he was looked upon with small
favor. The more active members of the League had been less fortunate,
and more than one nobleman had been banished to his estates.
Although the sum actually paid for the papers of the Charity League was
known, the recipient of the blood money had never been discovered. It
was a large sum, for the government had been quick to recognize the
necessity of nipping this movement in the bud. Education is a dangerous
matter to deal with; England is beginning to find this out for herself.
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