Millner, as mechanically, took one of the virginally cinctured cigars, and began to undo its wrappings.  It was the first time he had ever been privileged to detach that golden girdle, and nothing could have given him a better measure of the importance of the situation, and of the degree to which he was apparently involved in it.  “You remember that San Pablo rubber business?  That’s what they’ve been raking up,” said Mr. Spence abruptly.

Millner paused in the act of striking a match.  Then, with an appreciable effort of the will, he completed the gesture, applied the flame to his cigar, and took a long inhalation.  The cigar was certainly delicious.

Mr. Spence, drawing a little closer, leaned forward and touched him on the arm.  The touch caused Millner to turn his head, and for an instant the glance of the two men crossed at short range.  Millner was conscious, first, of a nearer view than he had ever had of his employer’s face, and of its vaguely suggesting a seamed sandstone head, the kind of thing that lies in a corner in the court of a museum, and in which only the round enamelled eyes have resisted the wear of time.  His next feeling was that he had now reached the moment to which the offer of the cigar had been a prelude.  He had always known that, sooner or later, such a moment would come; all his life, in a sense, had been a preparation for it.  But in entering Mr. Spence’s service he had not foreseen that it would present itself in this form.  He had seen himself consciously guiding that gentleman up to the moment, rather than being thrust into it by a stronger hand.  And his first act of reflection was the resolve that, in the end, his hand should prove the stronger of the two.  This was followed, almost immediately, by the idea that to be stronger than Mr. Spence’s it would have to be very strong indeed.  It was odd that he should feel this, since—­as far as verbal communication went—­it was Mr. Spence who was asking for his support.  In a theoretical statement of the case the banker would have figured as being at Millner’s mercy; but one of the queerest things about experience was the way it made light of theory.  Millner felt now as though he were being crushed by some inexorable engine of which he had been playing with the lever. ...

He had always been intensely interested in observing his own reactions, and had regarded this faculty of self-detachment as of immense advantage in such a career as he had planned.  He felt this still, even in the act of noting his own bewilderment—­felt it the more in contrast to the odd unconsciousness of Mr. Spence’s attitude, of the incredible candour of his self-abasement and self-abandonment.  It was clear that Mr. Spence was not troubled by the repercussion of his actions in the consciousness of others; and this looked like a weakness—­unless it were, instead, a great strength. ...