And she had then discovered that whenever he was seriously revolving any matter he never spoke of it; he would be voluble about everything and anything else under the sun, would seem to be unbosoming himself of his bottommost secret of thought and action, but would not let escape so much as the smallest hint of what was really engaging his whole mind.

It was this discovery that had set her to disregarding his seeming of colossal, of fatuous egotism, and had started her toward an estimate of him wholly different from the current estimate.

Now, was he thinking of their future, or was it some other matter that occupied his real mind while he talked on and on, usually of himself?
She could not tell; she hoped it was, but she dared not try to find out.
They were at their mail, which one of the guides had just brought.

He interrupted his reading to burst out: "How they do tempt a man! Now, there's"-- and he struck the open letter in his hand with a flourishing, egotistic gesture--"an offer from the General Steel Company.

They want me as their chief counsel at fifty thousand a year and the privilege of doing other work that doesn't conflict." Fifty thousand a year! Margaret discreetly veiled her glistening eyes.
"It's the fourth offer of the same sort," he went on, "since we've been up here--since it was given out that I'd be Attorney-General as soon as old Stillwater retires.