Within two hours Langdon, in full control, had arranged with Tavistock
to make the imperiled victory secure. Thus, not until the next day but
one did it come out that the cataclysm had been caused by a man ruined
and broken and with his back against death's door to hold it shut; that
Dumont himself had turned the triumphing host of his enemies into a
flying mob, in its panic flinging away its own possessions as well as
its booty.
Perhaps the truth never would have been known, perhaps Langdon would
have bribed Tavistock to silence and would have posed as the conquering
genius, had he found out a day earlier how Dumont had put himself in
funds. As it was, this discovery did not come too late for him to
seize the opportunity that was his through Dumont's secret methods,
Pauline's indifference to wealth and his own unchecked authority. He
has got many an hour of--strictly private--mental gymnastics out of the
moral problem he saw, in his keeping for himself and Gladys the spoils
he gathered up. He is inclined to think he was intelligent rather than
right; but, knowing his weakness for self-criticism, he never gives a
positive verdict against himself. That, however, is unimportant, as he
is not the man to permit conscience to influence conduct in grave
matters.
He feels that, in any case, he did not despoil Pauline or Gardiner.
For, after he had told her what Dumont did--and to protect himself he
hastened to tell it--she said: "Whatever there may be, it's all for
Gardiner. I waive my own rights, if I have any. But you must give me
your word of honor that you won't let anything tainted pass to him."
Langdon, judging with the delicacy of a man of honor put on honor, was
able to find little such wealth.
He gives himself most of the credit for Gardiner's turning out so
well--"Inherited riches are a hopeless handicap," he often says to
Gladys when they are talking over the future of their children.