Page:Tales of the long bow.pdf/193

 I came to be a background? I mean, why I rather approve of people being backgrounds."

"I remember something you said a long time ago," replied Hood. "Hilary must have been in long-clothes at that time."

"I said I had found out something by going round the world," said Crane. "You young people think I am an old Tory; but remember I am also an old traveller. Well, it's part of the same thing. I'm a traditionalist because I'm a traveller. I told you when I came back to the club that I'd come back to the tribe. I told you that in all the tribes of the world, the best man was the man true to his tribe. I told you the best man was the man who wore a nose-ring where nose-rings were worn."

"I remember," said Owen Hood.

"No, you forget," said Crane rather gruffly. "You forget it when you talk, about Enoch Oates the American. I'm no politician, thank God, and I shall look on with detachment if you dynamite him for being a millionaire. As a matter of fact, he doesn't think half so much of money as old Normantowers, who thinks it's too sacred to talk about. But you're not dynamiting him for being a millionaire. You're simply laughing at him for being an American. You're laughing at him for being national and normal,