Yes, I _was_ tempted to cry
it aloud--to make a clean breast of it--to say, "We, the Governments of
the People, the Democracies, the Free Nations of the world, have failed--
have lost the peace which we could have won, because we would not give up
the things which we loved so much better--profit, revenge, our own too
good opinion of ourselves, our own self-righteous judgment of others."...
I was tempted to it; and yet it has been charged against me that I would
not admit failure because I wanted to save my face.
TUMULTY. You have never been much scared by what people _said_,
Governor. That didn't count, I reckon.
EX-PRES. No, Tumulty; but this did--that where all seemed dark, I still
saw light. Down there, among the wreckage, something was left--an
instrument of which I thought I saw the full future possibility more
clearly than others. I believe I do still. And my main thought then
was--how best to secure that one thing to which, half blindly, they had
agreed. To win that, I was willing to give up my soul.
TUMULTY. It's the Covenant, you mean, Governor?
EX-PRES. Yes, the Covenant! That at least was won--seemed won--whatever
else was lost. Some of them were willing to let me have it only because
they themselves believed it would prove useless--just to save my face for
all I had to give up in exchange. And so I--let them "save my face" for
me; let them think that it was so--just to give this one thing its chance.
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