Atlas Shrugged

part of the truth."
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 "What's the rest?"
"It was not all I was after."
"What else?"
"That's for you to figure out."
"I came here because I wanted you to know that I am beginning to understand your purpose."
He smiled. "If you did, you wouldn't have come here."
"That's true. I don't understand and probably never shall. I am merely beginning to see part of it."
"Which part?"
"You had exhausted every other form of depravity and sought a new thrill by swindling people like Jim
and his friends, in order to watch them squirm. I don't know what sort of corruption could make anyone
enjoy that, but that's what you came to New York to see, at the right time."
"They certainly provided a spectacle of squirming on the grand scale. Your brother James in particular."
"They're rotten fools, but in this case their only crime was that they trusted you. They trusted your name
and your honor."
Again, she saw the look of earnestness and again knew with certainty that it was genuine, when he said,
"Yes. They did. I know it."
"And do you find it amusing?"
"No. I don't find it amusing at all."
He had continued playing with his marbles, absently, indifferently, taking a shot once in a while. She
noticed suddenly the faultless accuracy of his aim, the skill of his hands. He merely flicked his wrist and
sent a drop of stone shooting across the carpet to click sharply against another drop. She thought of his
childhood and of the predictions that anything he did would be done superlatively.
"No," he said, "I don't find it amusing. Your brother James and his friends knew nothing about the
copper-mining industry. They knew nothing about making money. They did not think it necessary to
learn. They considered knowledge superfluous and judgment inessential. They observed that there I was
in the world and that I made it my honor to know. They thought they could trust my honor. One does not
betray a trust of this kind, does one?”
"Then you did betray it intentionally?"
"That's for you to decide. It was you who spoke about their trust and my honor. I don't think in such
terms any longer. . . ." He shrugged, adding, "I don't give a damn about your brother James and his
friends. Their theory was not new, it has worked for centuries. But it wasn't foolproof. There is just one
point that they overlooked. They thought it was safe to ride on my brain, because they assumed that the
goal of my journey was wealth. All their calculations rested on the premise that I wanted to make money.