I felt some relief.
"Oh, isn't it? Then I'm glad. I thought it must be."
"You won't go on thinking it. Suppose you do right and somebody else does wrong?"
"Then I should be willing to back my way against his. Don't you see? That's the point. That's the secret I'm telling you about. Right works; wrong doesn't."
"That's all very fine—"
"It's all very fine because it's so. Right is—what's the word William James put into the dictionary?"
He suggested pragmatism.
"That's it. Right is pragmatic, which I suppose is the same thing as practical. Wrong must be impractical; it must be—"
"I shouldn't bank too confidently on that in dealing with the great J. Howard."
"But I'm going to bank on it. It's where I'm to have him at a disadvantage. If he does wrong while I do right, why, then I'll get him on the hip."