s Wall, the Express, nor herself. He noted this, and wondered.

"You see, you don't understand, Mr. Ames. You'll be, oh, so surprised
some day when you learn a little about the laws of thought--even the
way human thought operates! For you can't possibly do another person
an injury without that injury flying back and striking you. It's a
regular boomerang! You may not feel the effects of its return right
away--but it does return, and the effects accumulate. And then, some
day, when you least expect it, comes the crash! But, when you love a
person, why, that comes back to you too; and it never comes alone. It
just brings loads of good with it. It helps you, and everybody. Oh,
Mr. Ames," she cried, suddenly rising and seizing both his hands,
"you've just _got_ to love those people down there! You can't help it,
even if you think you can, for hate is not real--it's an awful
delusion!"

It was not so much an appeal which the girl made as an affirmation of
things true and yet to come. The mighty _Thou shalt not!_ which Moses
laid upon his people, when transfused by the omnipotent love of the
Christ was transformed from a clanking chain into a silken cord. The
restriction became a prophecy; for when thou hast yielded self to the
benign influence of the Christ-principle, then, indeed, thou shalt not
desire to break the law of God.

Carmen returned to her chair, and sat eagerly expectant. Ames groped
within his thought for a reply. And then his mental grasp closed upon
the words of Hood.

"They are very bitter against me--they hate me!" he retorted lamely.

"Ah, yes," she said quickly. "They reflect in kind your thought of
them. Your boomerangs of greed, of exploitation, of utter indifference
which you have hurled at them, have returned upon you in hatred. Do
you know that hatred is a fearful poison? And do you know that
another's hatred resting upon you is deadly, unless you know how to
meet and neutralize it with love? For love is the neutralizing
alkaloid."

"Love is--weakness," he said in a low tone. "That kind, at least."

"Love weakness! Oh! Why, there is no such mighty power in the whole
universe as love! It is omnipotent! It is hatred that is weak!"

Ames made a little gesture of contempt. "We argue from different
standpoints," he said. "I am a plain, matter-of-fact, cold-blooded
business man. There is no love in business!"

"And that," she replied in a voice tinged with sadness, "is why
business is such chaos