“But you said——”
“You told me that I was a flatterer. I shall not be with you any longer. You wish the truth. You shall have it.”
“That is what you thought from the first?” he said, slowly.
“Yes,” she answered, less clearly. “I have always understood that you were most absurdly self-satisfied. That you are deluded by a pose as to which you are so weak as to deceive yourself. That you take yourself with a seriousness which leads you to believe that you are preaching a crusade when you are only blowing a penny whistle. That you assume that you have made for yourself a position and a reputation which were made for you.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, quietly.
“You have an old name and a large fortune which rendered you conspicuous and made everything easy. The newspapers have talked of you only as they would anyway. Indeed, they would have given more space to you if you had a liking for conducting an automobile painted like a barber’s pole than they have because you went into politics. They would have preferred the striped automobile, but they had to be content with the ‘reform politics’ as the freak of one in your place.”
“Then you think I am—nothing?”
“You are a rich young man of assured position—spoiled by the world.”
“I thought I had, at least, ordinary common sense.”
“Probably—but still you have unduly lost your head. You would not know if people were laughing at you——”