I can't follow.

I understand only the plain bright ideas of the half educated, you know." Her brilliant glance shone on him steadily.

"I shan't try to explain.
What one doesn't understand without an explanation isn't worth knowing.
But somebody must take you seriously, or you wouldn't be where you are." "Do you know where I am ?" he demanded impulsively.
"I know that you are Governor of Virginia." "Oh, that! I thought you meant something more than that," he returned with a note of disappointment in his voice.
"What could I mean more than that?
Isn't it the first step upward in a political career ?" "Perhaps.

But I was thinking of something else.

The chief thing seems to me to be to work a way out of the muddle.