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In which case--""We'd better have Demosthones around. All right. We'll show them clean, for now. But watch them. And I, ofcourse, have to find ways of keeping the Russians calm."***In spite of all her misgivings, Valentine was having fun being Demosthenes. Her column was now being carriedon practically every newsnet in the country, and it was fun to watch the money pile up in her attorney's accounts.Every now and then she and Peter would, in Demosthenes' name, donate a carefully calculated sum to aparticular candidate or cause: enough money that the donation would be noticed, but not so much that thecandidate would feel she was trying to buy a vote. She was getting so many letters now that her newsnet hadhired a secretary to answer certain classes of routine correspondence for her. The fun fetters, from national andinternational leaders, sometimes hostile, sometimes friendly, always diplomatically trying to pry intoDemosthenes' mind -- those she and Peter read together, laughing in delight sometimes that people like *this*were writing to children, and didn't know it.Sometimes, though, she was ashamed. Father was reading Demosthenes regularly; he never read Locke, or if hedid, he said nothing about it. At dinner, though, he would often regale them with some telling point Demostheneshad made in that day's column. Peter loved it when Father did that -- "See, it shows that the common man ispaying attention" -- but it made Valentine feel humiliated for Father. If he ever found out that all this time *I*was writine the columns he told us about, and that I didn't even believe half the things I wrote, he would be angryand ashamed.At school, she once nearly got them in trouble, when her history teacher assigned the class to write a papercontrasting the views of Demosthenes and Locke as expressed in two of their early columns. Valentine wascareless, and did a brirrliant job of analysis. As a result, she had to work hard to talk the principal out of havingher essay published on the very newsnet that carried Demosthenes' column. Peter was savage about it. "Youwrite too much like Demosthenes, you can't get published, I should kill Demosthenes now, you're getting out ofcontrol."If he raged about that blunder, Peter frightened her still more when he went silent. It happened whenDemosthenes was invited to take part in the President's Council on Education for the Future, a blue-ribbon panelthat was designed to do nothing, but do it splendidly. Valentine thought Peter would take it as a triumph, but he第 241 页 共 340 页http://www.en8848.com.cn/ 原 版 英 语 阅 读 网