“Clever, Ban. And true in a measure. But insincerity is more than bad taste. It’s one of the primal sins.”
“You find The Patriot insincere?”
“Can I find it anything else, knowing you?”
“Ah, there you go wrong again, Miss Camilla. As an expression of my ideals, the news part of the paper would be insincere. I don’t like it much better than you do. But I endure it; yes, I’ll be frank and admit that I even encourage it, because it gives me wider scope for the things I want to say. Sincere things. I’ve never yet written in my editorial column anything that I don’t believe from the bottom of my soul. Take that as a basis on which to judge me.”
“My dear Ban! I don’t want to judge you.”
“I want you to,” he cried eagerly. “I want your judgment and your criticism. But you must see what I’m aiming for. Miss Camilla, I’m making people stir their minds and think who never before had a thought beyond the everyday processes of life.”
“For your own purposes? Thought, as you manipulate it, might be a high-explosive. Have you thought of using it in that way?”
“If I found a part of the social edifice that had to be blown to pieces, I might.”
“Take care that you don’t involve us all in the crash. Meantime, what is the rest of your editorial page; a species of sedative to lull their minds? Who is Evadne Ellington?”
“One of our most prominent young murderesses.”