"Yes," Arthur had replied, with cool scorn. "You Pagans pitched into me
because I made my way over; but I am not so stupid as not to see that
there has been considerable sneaking after me."
"But at least," Fred had urged, "we fellows preserved the decency of a
respect for the principles we had professed."
"Ah, bah! The principles we had professed Were the impossible dreams of
extreme youth. Honesty is a weakness that is outgrown by any man who
has brains enough to do his own thinking. You still profess the
principles, and betray them, while I boldly disavow them at the start."
"At least," Rangely had said, driven to his last defences, "if we have
fallen off, we have done it unconsciously, and you"--
"I," Fenton had flamed out in interruption, "have, at least, made it a
point to be honest with myself, whether I was with anybody else or not.
I find it easier to be mistaken than to be vague, and I had far rather
be."
The thought of Fenton floated through Fred's mind as he endorsed Peter
Calvin, and with no especial thought of what he was saying, he
observed--
"Arthur Fenton wants Grant Herman to have the commission, and I must
say Herman would be sure to do it well."
"If Fenton wants Herman," Irons returned, with an attempt at lightness
which only served to emphasize the genuine bitterness which underlaid
his words, "that settles my voting for him.
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