"Well, it's true," said Captain Rames. "I can make a shift with pemmican, but I honestly like a good dinner. It's the contrast, I suppose." Sir James shook his head. "It goes deeper than that," said he. "Your pale saints are no doubt profitable to the painters of glass windows, but I doubt if the world owes so very much to them. The great things are really done by the people who have a good deal of the animal in them; and animals like good dinners." Captain Rames was mollified, and his face took on a jovial look. "I am animal enough," he said, "to purr when my back is scratched." But Sir James Burrell was mounted on a hobby and hardly heeded the interruption. "I could quote historical instances, but I need go no further than this room. Do you see the man sitting next to our host, and upon his right?" Captain Rames saw a small thin man in the dress of a privy councillor, a man with a peaked, fleshless face, in which a pair of small eyes twinkled alertly. A scanty crop of gray hair covered the back of his skull, and left markedly visible the height and the narrowness of his forehead. Captain Rames leaned forward with a new interest. "Yes, and I recognize his face," he said. "Surely that is Henry Smale." "Exactly," returned Sir James. "He is in the cabinet, and, quite apart from politics, he is, upon scientific grounds, a man of great distinction." "But, surely, he disproves your theory. He looks an ascetic." "And is nothing of the kind," interrupted Sir James. "I admit that his look of asceticism has been a great asset to him in his career. But the public has quite misjudged him. He is a voluptuary, with the face of a monk--the most useful combination for public life in this country which you could possibly imagine. If he dines alone at his club, he will not dine under a guinea; and he has the animal weaknesses up to the brim of him. For instance, he is as jealous as a dog. Filch from him the smallest of his prerogatives, and he will turn upon you bitterly. Yet he has done great things, and initiated bold policies. Why? Because he has enough of the animal in him to do great things." And upon that Sir James broke off. The butler was standing at the elbow of Captain Rames, with a jug of champagne in one hand and a decanter of red wine in the other. He bent down and offered Captain Rames his choice. Sir James Burrell intervened. "By the way," he said, "have you any wish to stand particularly well with your host?" "I am now beginning to think that I have," replied Captain Rames. "Then I should choose his Burgundy. He has his fancies, like the rest of us, and to prefer his Nuits-St.-George to champagne is one way to his esteem." Captain Rames took the hint, and, as he raised his glass to his lips, Mr. Benoliel smiled to him across the table. "I will ask your opinion upon that wine, Captain Rames," he said, and so turned again to Henry Smale. "You see, he noticed at once," said Sir James.