He
has more brains than vanity; therefore he's an unhappy hypocrite instead of
a happy self-deceiver."
Howard and Marian shrunk together with their heads close in the effort to
make sure of concealing their faces. She was suffering for herself, but
more acutely for him. She knew, as if she were looking into his mind, his
frightful humiliation. "Hereafter," she thought, "whenever any one looks at
him he will feel the thought behind the look."
"How nearly did I come to him?" asked Saverhill.
Howard started and Marian caught the rail for support.
"A centre-shot," replied Marshall, "if the people who know him and have
talked to me about him tell the truth."
"Oh, they're 'on to' him, as you say, over there, are they?"
"No, not everybody. Only his friends and the few who are on the inside.
There's an ugly story going about privately as to how he got the
ambassadorship. They say he was bought with it. But--he's admired and
envied even by a good many who know or suspect that he's only an article of
commerce. He's got the cash and he's got position; and his paper gives him
tremendous power. Then too, as you say, all about him there are men like
himself. The only punishment he's likely to get is the penalty of having to
live with himself.
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