There is a school of speakers-out, and
would to Heaven they would learn to hold their tongues. There is a
school for calling a spade by no other name, and they have still to
learn that the world is by no means interested in their clatter of
shovels.
The Psalmist knew much of which he did not write, and the young men of
the modern school of poesy and fiction know no more, but they lack the
good taste of the singer of old. That is all.
Karl Steinmetz was a man who formed his opinion on the best
basis--namely, experience, and that had taught him that a bold reticence
does less harm to one's neighbor than a weak volubility.
Paul was an easy subject for such treatment. His own method inclined to
err on the side of reticence. He gave few confidences and asked none, as
is the habit of Englishmen.
"Well," he said, "I do not suppose he will stay long at Thors, and I
know that he will not stay at all at Osterno. Besides, what harm can he
actually do to us? He cannot well go about making enquiries. To begin
with, he knows no Russian."
"I doubt that," put in Steinmetz.
"And, even if he does, he cannot come poking about in Osterno. Catrina
will give him no information. Maggie hates him. You and I know him.
There is only the countess."
"Who will tell him all she knows! She would render that service to a
drosky driver.
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