far as I could see,
and I never heard him mention religion. I should doubt if he had any
real sense of God at all, or if he was capable of knowing God through
the emotions. But I understood that as a child he had had a religious
upbringing with a strong moral side to it. His private life was, in the
usual limited sense, blameless. He was almost ascetic in his habits,
except as to smoking. I lived with him four years without ever knowing
him to tell a direct verbal falsehood, constantly as he used to practise
deceit in other forms. Can you understand the soul of a man who never
hesitated to take steps that would have the effect of hoodwinking
people, who would use every trick of the markets to mislead, and who
was at the same time scrupulous never to utter a direct lie on the most
insignificant matter? Manderson was like that, and he was not the only
one. I suppose you might compare the state of mind to that of a soldier
who is personally a truthful man, but who will stick at nothing to
deceive the enemy. The rules of the game allow it; and the same may be
said of business as many business men regard it. Only with them it is
always wartime.'

'It is a sad world,' observed Mr Cupples.

'As you say,' Marlowe agreed. 'Now I was saying that one could always
take Manderson's word if he gave it in a definite form. The first time
I ever heard him utter a downright lie was on the night he died; and
hearing it, I believe, saved me from being hanged as his murderer.'

Marlowe stared at the light above his head and Trent moved impatiently
in his chair. 'Before we come to that,' he said, 'will you tell us
exactly on what footing you were with Manderson during the years you
were with him?'

'We were on very good terms from beginning to end,' answered Marlowe.
'Nothing like friendship--he was not a man for making friends---but the
best of terms as between a trusted employee and his chief. I went to him
as private secretary just after getting my degree at Oxford. I was
to have gone into my father's business, where I am now, but my father
suggested that I should see the world for a year or two. So I took this
secretaryship, which seemed to promise a good deal of varied experience,
and I had let the year or two run on to four years before the end came.
The offer came to me through the last thing in the world I should have
put forward as a qualification for a salaried post, and that was chess.'

At the word Trent struck his hands to