Men are wiser than that.' 'So?
Well, your Excellency understands,' he answered meekly.

'But--there are no cats on a cold hearth.' I told him again that he was a fool.

But for all that, and my reasoning, I felt uncomfortable.

This was a great man, if ever a great man lived, and they were all leaving him; and I--well, I had no cause to love him.
But I had taken his money, I had accepted his commission, and I had betrayed him.

These three things being so, if he fell before I could--with the best will in the world--set myself right with him, so much the better for me.