It was on these rare occasions that he might have conveyed to a keen observer the impression that he was playing a very dangerous game with a smiling countenance.
"All that we do," pursued Steinmetz, "is to bow to a lamentable necessity for deceit.

I have bowed to it all my life.

It has been my trade, perhaps.

It is not our fault that we are placed in charge of four or five thousand human beings who are no more capable of helping themselves than are sheep.

It is not our fault that the forefathers of these sheep cut down the forests and omitted to plant more, so that the flocks with whom we have to deal have no fuel.