eyes.

"It has been said," he went on, keeping the key, "that I am a man of
courage, but I find that I need a good deal of that just now. I have
been rude to you, and without warrant, and I offer you my humble
apologies." He fumbled with his cravat as if it had suddenly
tightened. "Will you accept?"

"Instantly." Elsa understood the quality of courage that had stirred
the colonel.

"Thanks."

But ruthlessly: "I should, however, like your point of view in regard
to what you consider my conduct."

"Is it necessary?"

"I believe it would be better for my understanding if you made a full
confession." She did not mean to be relentless, but her curiosity was
too strong not to press her advantage.

"Well, then, over here as elsewhere in the world there are standards by
which we judge persons who come under our notice."

"Agreed. Individuality is not generally understandable."

"By the mediocre, you might have added. That's the difficulty with
individuality; it refuses to be harnessed by mediocrity, and mediocrity
holds the whip-hand, always. I represent the mediocre."

"Oh, never!" said Elsa animatedly. "Mediocrity is always without
courage."

"You are wrong. It has the courage of its convictions."

"Rather is it not stubbornness, wilful refusal to recognize things as
they are?"

He countered the question with another. "Supposing we were all
individuals, in the sense you mean? Supposing each of us did exactly
as he pleased? Can you honestly imagine a more confusing place than
this world would be? The Manchurian pony is a wild little beast, an
individual if ever there was one; but man tames him and puts to use his
energies. And so it is with human individuality. We of the mediocre
tame it and harness and make it useful to the general welfare of
humanity. And when we encounter the untamable, in order to safeguard
ourselves, we must turn it back into the wilderness, an outlaw.
Indeed, I might call individuality an element, like fire and water and
air."

"But who conquer fire and water and air?" Elsa demanded, believing she
had him pocketed.

"Mediocrity, through the individual of this or that being. Humanity in
the bulk is mediocre. And odd as it seems, individuality (which is
another word for genius) believes it leads mediocrity. But it can not
be made to understand that mediocrity ordains the leadership."

"Then you contend that in the hands of the stupid lies the balance of
power?"