I
am perfectly willing to take it that he has done nothing worse than
to stick a knife into somebody--with extenuating circumstances--French
fashion, don't you know. But that subversive sanguinary rot of doing
away with all law and order in the world makes my blood boil. It's
simply cutting the ground from under the feet of every decent,
respectable, hard-working person. I tell you that the consciences of
people who have them, like you or I, must be protected in some way; or
else the first low scoundrel that came along would in every respect be
just as good as myself. Wouldn't he, now? And that's absurd!"
He glared at me. I nodded slightly and murmured that doubtless there was
much subtle truth in his view.
The principal truth discoverable in the views of Paul the engineer was
that a little thing may bring about the undoing of a man.
"_Il ne faut pas beaucoup pour perdre un homme_," he said to me,
thoughtfully, one evening.
I report this reflection in French, since the man was of Paris, not of
Barcelona at all.
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