But if the Boss had purchased these rugs himself, with money
earned by his own brow-sweat, I am sure he would appreciate them
better. He would then know, if not their intrinsic worth, at least
their market value. Yes, and they were presented to him by some one
_needing, I suppose, police connivance and protection_. The first half
of this statement I had from the Boss himself; the second, I base on
Khalid's knowingness and suspicion. Be this, however, as it may.

"When we entered this sumptuously furnished office, the squat figure
in the chair under the picture of Boss Tweed, remained as immobile as
a fixture and did not as much as reply to our _salaam_. But he pointed
disdainfully to seats in the corner of the room, saying, 'Sit down
there,' in a manner quite in keeping with his stogies raised on the
desk directly in our face. Such freedom, nay, such bestiality, I could
never tolerate. Indeed, I prefer the suavity and palaver of Turkish
officials, no matter how crafty and corrupt, to the puffing, spitting
manners of these come-up-from-the-shamble men. But Khalid could sit
there as immobile as the Boss himself, and he did so, billah! For he
was thinking all the while, as he told me when we came out, not of
such matters as grate on the susceptibilities of a poet, but on the
one sole idea of how such a bad titman could lead by the nose so many
good people."

Shakib then proceeds to give us a verbatim report of the interview. It
begins with the Boss' question, "What do you mean by writing such a
letter?" and ends with this other, "What do you mean by immanent
morality?" The reader, given the head and tail of the matter, can
supply the missing parts. Or, given its two bases, he can construct
this triangle of Politics, Ethics, and the Constable, with Khalid's
letter, offended Majesty, and a prison cell, as its three turning
points. We extract from the report, however, the concluding advice of
the Boss. For when he asked Khalid again what he meant by immanent
morality, he continued in a crescendo of indignation: "You mean the
morality of hayseeds, and priests, and philosophical fools? That sort
of morality will not as much as secure a vote during the campaign, nor
even help to keep the lowest clerk in office. That sort of morality is
good for your mountain peasants or other barbarous tribes. But the
free and progressive people of the United States must have something
better, nobler, more practical. You'd do well, therefore,