The other gleam proceeded from one of the workmen at his bench, a serious and socialistic person who occasionally lent him something to read: Foxe's "Book of Martyrs," "Mill on Liberty," Bellamy's "Looking Backward," at that time at the height of its popularity.

And sometimes he would talk to Paul about collectivism and the new era that was coming when there would be no such words as rich and poor, because there would be no such classes as they denoted.
Paul would say: "Then a prince will be no better than a factory hand ?" "There won't be any princes, I tell thee," his friend would reply, and launch out into a denunciation of tyrants.
But this did not suit Paul.

If there were to be no princes, where, would he come in?
So, while grateful to the evangelist for talking to him and treating him as a human being, he totally rejected his gospel.
It struck at the very foundations of his visionary destiny.

He was afraid to argue, for his friend was vehement.

Also confession of aristocratic prejudices might turn friendship into enmity.