"The Yankees talk a lot about what they do and have done," Tudor said,
"and are looked down upon by the English as braggarts. But the Yankee is
only a child. He does not know effectually how to brag. He talks about
it, you see. But the Englishman goes him one better by not talking about
it. The Englishman's proverbial lack of bragging is a subtler form of
brag after all. It is really clever, as you will agree."
"I never thought of it before," Joan cried. "Of course. An Englishman
performs some terrifically heroic exploit, and is very modest and
reserved--refuses to talk about it at all--and the effect is that by his
silence he as much as says, 'I do things like this every day. It is as
easy as rolling off a log. You ought to see the really heroic things I
could do if they ever came my way. But this little thing, this little
episode--really, don't you know, I fail to see anything in it remarkable
or unusual.' As for me, if I went up in a powder explosion, or saved a
hundred lives, I'd want all my friends to hear about it, and their
friends as well. I'd be prouder than Lucifer over the affair. Confess,
Mr. Sheldon, don't you feel proud down inside when you've done something
daring or courageous?"
Sheldon nodded.
"Then," she pressed home the point, "isn't disguising that pride under a
mask of careless indifference equivalent to telling a lie?"
"Yes, it is," he admitted.
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