“You’ve bought experience.”
“Cheap at any cost. You can’t buy fear. Love comes in varieties at the market values. Hate can be bought for a song; but fear, genuine and amazing, is priceless—a gem which only opportunity can provide; and how seldom opportunity knocks at any man’s door!”
“Crabb the original—the esoteric!”
“Yes. The same. The very same. And you, how different! How sober and rounded!”
There was a silence, contemplative, retrospective on both their parts. Crabb broke it.
“Tell me, old man,” he said, “about your position. Isn’t there any chance?”
Burnett smiled a little bitterly.
“I’m a consular clerk at twelve hundred a year during good behavior. When I’ve said that, I’ve said it all.”
“But your future?”
“I’m not in line of promotion.”