As correspondent of a New York daily, those Cabinet folk and men of Congress encountered him affably; when he was not present they spoke ferociously of him and his craft, as convicts curse a guard behind his back, and for much a convict's reason.
It was the same at the club without the affability.

Present or absent, there they turned unsparing back upon him.

Richard's status as a newspaper man had been explained and fixed, and they of the club liked him less than before.

The Fopling feeling towards the press predominated at the club, and although Richard was never openly snubbed--his shoulders were too wide for that--besides, some sigh of those hand-grips with Storri had gone about--the feeling was manifest.

This cool distance pleased Richard rather than otherwise, and he went often to the club to enjoy it.