So the homely live charity of these women, their work, which no other hands were ready to take, jarred against his abstract theory, and irritated him, as an obstinate fact always does run into the hand of a man who is determined to clutch the very heart of a matter.

Truth will not underlie all facts, in this muddle of a world, in spite of the Positive Philosophy, you know.
Don't sneer at Knowles.

Your own clear, tolerant brain, that reflects all men and creeds alike, like colourless water, drawing the truth from all, is very different, doubtless, from this narrow, solitary soul, who thought the world waited for him to fight down his one evil before it went on its slow way.

An intolerant fanatic, of course.

But the truth he did know was so terribly real to him, there was such sick, throbbing pity in his heart for men who suffered as he had done! And then, fanatics must make history for conservative men to learn from, I suppose.
If Knowles shunned the hospital, there was another place he shunned more,--the place where his Communist buildings were to have stood.