Jeff chuckled at the apothegm even while he protested. Sam capped it with another.
“He's always sitting to himself for his own portrait.”
“He'll get over that when he brushes up against the world.” Jeff added his own criticism thoughtfully. “The weak spot in him is a sort of flatness of mind. This makes him afraid of new ideas. He wants to be respectable, and respectability is the most damning thing on earth.”
After Miller had left Jeff buckled down to Ely's “Political Economy.” He had not been at it long when James surprised him by dropping in. His host offered the easiest chair and shoved tobacco toward him.
“Been pretty busy with the team, I suppose?” Jeff suggested.
“It's taken a lot of my time, but I think I've put the athletic association on a paying basis at last.”
“I see by your report in the 'Verdenian' that you made good.”
“A fellow ought to do well whatever he undertakes to do.”
Jeff grinned across at him from where he lay on the bed with his fingers laced beneath his head. “That's what the copybooks used to say.”
“I want to have a serious talk with you, Jeff.”