"Of course he'll get on.
He knows all the official ropes.
Before I die I have every belief that I shall address him as Your Excellency and stand up when he enters the room."
"Most people think he deserves to get on. He's generally supposed to have a great deal of ability."
"Ability?
What nonsense!
He's a very stupid man.
He gives you the impression that he dashes off his work and gets it through from sheer brilliancy.
Nothing of the kind.
He's as industrious as a Eurasian clerk."*
"How has he got the reputation of being so clever?"
"There are many foolish people in the world and when a man in a rather high position puts on no frills, slaps them on the back, and tells them he'll do anything in the world for them, they are very likely to think him clever.
And then of course, there's his wife.
There's an able woman if you like.
She has a good sound head and her advice is always worth taking.
As long as Charlie Townsend's got her to depend on he's pretty safe never to do a foolish thing, and that's the first thing necessary for a man to get on in Government service.
They don't want clever men; clever men have ideas, and ideas cause trouble; they want men who have charm and tact and who can be counted on never to make a blunder.
Oh, yes, Charlie Townsend will get to the top of the tree all right."
"I wonder why you dislike him?"
"I don't dislike him."
"But you like his wife better?" smiled Kitty.
"I'm an old-fashioned little man and I like a well-bred woman."
"I wish she were well-dressed as well as well-bred."
"Doesn't she dress well?
I never noticed."
"I've always heard that they were a devoted couple," said Kitty, watching him through her eyelashes.
"He's very fond of her.
I will give him that credit.
I think that is the most decent thing about him."
"Cold praise."
"He has his little flirtations, but they're not serious.
He's much too cunning to let them go to such lengths as might cause him inconvenience.
And of course he isn't a passionate man; he's only a vain one.
He likes admiration.
He's fat and forty now, he does himself too well, but he was very good-looking when he first came to the Colony.
I've often heard his wife chaff him about his conquests."
"She doesn't take his flirtations very seriously?"
"Oh, no, she knows they don't go very far.
She says she'd like to be able to make friends of the poor little things who fall to Charlie; but they're always so common.
She says it's really not very flattering to her that the women who fall in love with her husband are so uncommonly second-rate."
XXXVI
WHEN Waddington left her Kitty thought over what he had so carelessly said.
It hadn't been very pleasant to hear and she had had to make something of an effort not to show how much it touched her.
It was bitter to think that all he said was true.
She knew that Charlie was stupid and vain, hungry for flattery, and she remembered the complacency with which he had told her little stories to prove his cleverness.
He was proud of a low cunning.
How worthless must she be if she had given her heart so passionately to such a man because - because he had nice eyes and a good figure!
She wished to despise him, because so long as she only hated him she knew that she was very near loving him.
The way he had treated her should have opened her eyes.
Walter had always held him in contempt.