Of a sudden, an inspiration came to him, a means to snap the
tension, to create a diversion wholly efficacious. He would turn
to his boasting again, would call upon his vanity, which he knew
well as his chief foible, and make it serve as the foil against
his love. He strove manfully to throw off the softer mood. In a
measure, at least, he won the fight--though always, under the
rush of this vaunting, there throbbed the anguish of his heart.
"You want to cut out worrying about me," he counseled, bravely.
"Why, I ain't worrying any, myself--not a little bit! You see,
it's something new I've pulled off. Nobody ever put over
anything like it before."
He faced Burke with a grin of gloating again.
"I'll bet there'll be a lot of stuff in the newspapers about
this, and my picture, too, in most of 'em! What?"
The man's manner imposed on Burke, though Mary felt the torment
that his vainglorying was meant to mask.
"Say," Garson continued to the Inspector, "if the reporters want
any pictures of me, could I have some new ones taken? The one
you've got of me in the Gallery is over ten years old.
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