But that was all behind me. After Marianna's death, a lot of things
had happened, all in a short time, and some of them very bad. But good
or bad, I had laid down a law for myself: I would not dwell on them. I
had started on a new life, and I was going to put the past in a locked
compartment in my mind. I had to!
I was no longer an ordinary civilian, scraping together his Blue
Heaven premiums for the sake of a roof over his head, budgeting his
food policies, carrying on his humdrum little job. I was a servant
of the human race and a member of the last surviving group of
gentleman-adventurers in all the world: I was an Insurance Claims
Adjuster for the Company!
All the same, I couldn't quite forget some of the bad things that had
happened, as I walked into the hotel dining room to meet the Regional
Director.
* * * * *
Regional Director Gogarty was a huge, pale balloon of a man. He
was waiting for me at a table set for four. As he greeted me, his
expression was sour. "Glad to meet you, Wills. Bad business, this. Bad
business. He got away with it again."