"
"Yes, and I told you the truth," Travers said, after a moment, in
which he bent frowningly over his cup of coffee. "I am a business man,
Rajah, and for a business man who wants to make any sort of success of
his life there must be only one standpoint. If he has another side to
his nature, as I have--the purely artistic and emotional side--he must
crush it out of sight, if not out of existence, as I do." He looked up
with a sudden return of his old tranquil humor. "You must not count it
as anything if the beauty of these surroundings for a moment lifted
the unpractical side of me uppermost," he said, laughing. "It was
purely _pro tem.,_ and I am once more my normal, hard-headed self, at
your disposal, Rajah."
Nehal Singh nodded absently.
"I believe what you say is true," he said. "A man who goes out into
the world and enters into her conflicts must have only one side--the
strong, hard, practical side; otherwise he can do nothing, neither for
himself nor others. The idea came to me already the other night after
I left you."
"Indeed?" Travers murmured. "What made you think of that, Rajah?"
Nehal gave a gesture which seemed to put the question to one side.
"Something I heard--saw," he said. "It does not matter. It made me
hesitate. That is all."
"Hesitate?"
"To enter into the conflict. I felt for the moment that I was not
fit--that it would overwhelm me. I had made a picture of the world, a
picture which after all might not be the true one.
Pages:
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168