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Until he dropped off to sleep he thought them over. Perhaps Gibson was a grandstander, a glory seeker, after all but was he to be blamed if what he sought above all else was the admiration of one like Consuello? Gibson's heroism in preventing the wreck of the "Lark" covered the front pages and scattered throughout the inside pages of the morning papers. The whole city talked of him.
Rogers figured that this bespoke embarrassment; but, to the biased understanding of the hostile La Farge, there was something falsely theatrical even in the way Weil cleared his throat. "Once a grandstander always a grandstander!" he muttered derisively. "What did you say?" whispered Rogers. "Nothing," replied La Farge "just thinking out loud. Listen to what Foxy Issy has to say for himself."
"A grandstander, a man who plays to the crowd instead of playing the game for what it's worth." A surge of exasperation went through John. Was this man incapable of ever believing anything or in anyone? "Good heavens, Brennan!" he said, hotly. "He risked his life, didn't he?" "I said he had nerve." "He did it to save others, didn't he?" "Others?" said Brennan sarcastically. "Others? Bosh!
Appended to this was a postscript so badly written that it was hard to decipher. I could guess that her cheeks had colored as she wrote it. "Maybe after all, I am a grandstander. I did get awfully tired and I pretended that he was looking on, and was swimming out to help me." "By Jove" snorted Mansfield, "she's a ripping good sort. I wonder who she pretended was looking on."
John, his back toward Consuello, his eyes on the door, wondering whether it was all a dream, a cheer in his heart for the man who had left them so dramatically, feared to move. "Exit, the villain" Gibson's last words echoed in his brain. He imagined he heard Brennan saying: "A grandstander, a grandstander to the last."
A really great man doesn't have to make a display of his courage like Gibson did. A really great man would have been satisfied by the realization that he had prevented a disaster without endangering the lives of others. "That's why I say Gibson is a grandstander, Gallant. Understand, when I say he's a grandstander I don't mean that he isn't sincere in his crusade to clean up the city.
He's simply a grandstander in the way he does things and that makes it impossible for him to ever be a truly big man. "Grandstanders often make good, but not in the way some of us would like. Oftener they fall down, tripped up by their insatiable desire for public acclaim. Full reward should be given to those who do big things, but they shouldn't do them for the reward.
Roosevelt seemed to amuse him always, to be a delightful if ridiculous and self-interested "grandstander," as he always said, "always looking out for Teddy, you bet," but good for the country, inspiring it with visions. Rockefeller was wholly admirable as a force driving the country on to autocracy, oligarchy, possibly revolution.
I haven't had either since I met 'Red Mike. Good night, boys, see you, tomorrow." "He's got nerve, all right," Brennan said. "But " "But what?" asked John, wondering what possible criticism Brennan could have in view of Gibson's display of courage. "But," said Brennan, "he's a grandstander." "A grandstander?" exclaimed John. "You said it, after me," said Brennan.
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