My story attracted far less attention than Bowman’s scoop had, but that was understandable. The fact that the French were bribing people in Asia wasn’t exactly startling; it veered toward the routine. Evidently the article was read with particular interest in China. The Chinese news agency, Xinhua, moved a brief story saying that the former minister of communications, Wu Jingsheng, had been arrested.

I had won a small victory. The best evidence was that Arthur Bowman stopped by and suggested that we have dinner. He said he wanted to talk to me about my career. But I knew that it was his own career that was really on his mind.

24

24

Bowman proposed that we meet at the Athenian Club, near the White House. It was across Farragut Square from the bureau, and I walked the half-dozen blocks trying to think what I would say to our senior diplomatic correspondent. I knew the truth now. I had to tell him. The game he had been playing was over. I was still trying out the words when I reached his club. It was a handsome old building on H Street with bow windows and a great blue flag with the club insignia flying over the entrance. Like so many other things in his life, it was a relic of a lost world.

The doorman met me just inside the front door with a polite but firm query: “May I help you?” When I said I was there to see Mr. Bowman, he was suddenly all smiles. He directed me upstairs, where he said Mr. Bowman was waiting. I found him at one end of a long salon, sitting in front of the fire. He had a glass of whiskey in his hand and a copy of Foreign Affairs propped open on his lap.

He greeted me warmly, but carefully. How was I? Did I have any trouble finding the place? What did I want to drink? When I asked for a glass of wine, he called out to a waiter in a tuxedo, who arrived to take my order. Bowman was at home here; it was obvious that this was one of his secret vices—coming to his club, calling the waiters and doormen by their first names, falling asleep in front of the fire on a wintry night.

“Weiss tells me you’re the next foreign editor, if you want it,” he began. “I wondered if you knew.”

Yes, I said. I knew. Weiss and I had discussed the job a few weeks before. It was a strange beginning to the conversation. He had obviously been talking with Weiss. Was that how he knew I was onto him, or had he talked to someone else?