You may laugh, but that's the reason.

Mallinson's always on the rack of other people's opinions--judges himself by what he imagines to be their standard of him.
Acquaintanceship with a celebrity lifts him in their eyes, he thinks, so really in his own.' Drake remained doubtfully pondering what credit acquaintanceship with him could confer on any one.

He was led back to his old view of Mallinson as a man tottering on a rickety base.
'Will he do something great ?' he asked, his forehead puckered in an effort to calculate the qualities which make for greatness.
Fielding chuckled quietly, and answered: 'Unlikely, I think.

Clever, of course, the man is, but it is never the work he does that pleases him, but the pose after the work's done.
That's fatal.' Drake looked at Fielding curiously.
'That's a criticism which would never have occurred to me.' He glanced at his watch.

'We have five minutes.