"It will depend on the both of
us--and the business in hand. Diplomats, you are well aware, are given
to very disingenuous ways and methods."
"In diplomacy," he appended. "A diplomat, as a rule, is merely a man of
a little wider experience and more mature judgment--the American
diplomat alone excepted, save in the secret service. Therefore he knows
his mind, and what he wants; and he usually can be depended upon to keep
after it until he gets it."
"And to want it after he gets it?" she inquired.
"Don't be cynical," he cautioned.
"I'm not. The world looks good to me, and I try to look good to the
world."
"You have succeeded!" he exclaimed.
"I've about-faced," she went on. "Now I presume everybody trustworthy
until it's proven otherwise. Time was, and not so long ago, when I was
more than cynical; and I found it didn't pay in a woman. A man may be
cynical and get away with it; a woman only injures her complexion, and
makes trouble for herself. Me for the happy spirit, and side-stepping
the bumps."
"Good girl!" Harleston applauded--thinking of her unhappy spirit, and
the hard bumps she must have endured during the time that the late
deceased Clephane was whirling to an aeroplane finish. "You're a wonder,
Mrs.
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