I replied: "I don't think you did. It's by talking a lot rather than by not talking enough, that people most often make fools of themselves."
"Severn must have thought me a complete ass."
"Nonsense. I know Severn. He'd make sure you weren't a complete ass before he invited you."
"Why did he invite me, anyway?"
"Probably because he liked you when he first met you, and because he had heard good things about you. He likes young men with no money and heaps of brains—like you and me, that's to say. (I presume you haven't any money—I haven't, anyway.) He takes us up just as he might buy a low-priced share that he fancied might treble in value if he waited long enough.... Please don't think I'm being really cynical about him. He's a damned good fellow, and there isn't a trace of offensive patronage in his attitude. He's too young to be a snob."
"Young, is he?"
"Well, thirty-five. That's young for a man in his line. I suppose you know what he is—K.C., and so on?"
"I don't know anything about him at all."
"But the Stapleton case—surely you remember all that in the newspapers?"
"I don't. I never read the newspapers."