A lingering adroitness saved him from utter mediocrity, and it was this adroitness, together with the promptings of Miss Sadie Graine, that helped him sense the temper of the Organization and dictated the tone of his dealings with his staff.

There was, for example, his masterly handling of Choudhury’s request for promotion. Although this came soon after the Ashmole-Brown episode, Pylos was already acting with more assurance. When Miss Graine, with lips meaningly tightened, admitted Choudhury to his office, Pylos was prepared. And when Choudhury, with unprecedented eloquence, pleaded his case, Pylos made no outward resistance. As it happened, he had just come from a top-level meeting at which the Director-General of the Organization had enjoined his departmental chiefs to administrative stringency, due to a crisis in Organization funds. Pylos could conceivably have given Choudhury this straightforward and authentic reason for refusal; the fact that he did not shows the velocity with which Pylos was learning the Organizational ropes. He did tell Choudhury that he had discussed the matter of promotions with the Director-General that very morning. The Director-General, he went on, put a certain emphasis on seniority. Years of service, years of experience—age, in short—mattered to him, perhaps more than they did to … (here Pylos gave a rueful, self-indicating smile) … others. Choudhury, for all his outstanding ability, was a comparatively young man. Could he not be patient? At his age, a matter of two or three years—what were they? Could he not take them in his youthful stride? So Pylos appealed, and Choudhury submitted.

Yes, Mr. Pylos had an appealing manner, and he used it for that purpose. He aimed to please, and his aim was directed to the highest circles. After a while he developed a posture that had always been latent with him—an excessively upright posture verging on a strut. He walked as if he were bending over backward.

Miss Graine’s responsibilities having increased, she was provided with the help of a typist, who was accommodated in an inside office that had been—and continued to be—used for hats and coats. The makeshift setting was well-suited—and perhaps contributed—to the constant turnover of the girls engaged. One of these girls, it is true, made an attempt to relate the story of Miss Sadie Graine to the Department of Personnel during the third year of Mr. Pylos’s administration. The tale, told with earnest lucidity, moved her hearer—a personnel officer of mature years and large bun—to send subsequently for the Confidential file on Miss Graine. But on finding this to be a veritable treasure-house of testimonials lavishly endorsed by the upper echelons of DALTO, she returned it unmarked to the registry and requested in its place the file on the typist—in which she entered a brief account of the typist’s appeal, adding a notation with respect to paranoid tendencies. Shortly afterward the girl was sent to assist the less technical in rugged country northwest of Kabul.