"Thank you," answered Evan. "You are very kind." And he began to
smoke in the cab.



IV. A DISCUSSION AT DAWN

The duellists had from their own point of view escaped or
conquered the chief powers of the modern world. They had
satisfied the magistrate, they had tied the tradesman neck and
heels, and they had left the police behind. As far as their own
feelings went they had melted into a monstrous sea; they were but
the fare and driver of one of the million hansoms that fill
London streets. But they had forgotten something; they had
forgotten journalism. They had forgotten that there exists in
the modern world, perhaps for the first time in history, a class
of people whose interest is not that things should happen well or
happen badly, should happen successfully or happen
unsuccessfully, should happen to the advantage of this party or
the advantage of that part, but whose interest simply is that
things should happen.

It is the one great weakness of journalism as a picture of our
modern existence, that it must be a picture made up entirely of
exceptions. We announce on flaring posters that a man has fallen
off a scaffolding. We do not announce on flaring posters that a
man has not fallen off a scaffolding. Yet this latter fact is
fundamentally more exciting, as indicating that that moving tower
of terror and mystery, a man, is still abroad upon the earth.