The Confidence-Man Chapter 7 Summary

A Gentleman With Gold Sleeve-Buttons

  • While Grey-and-white is telling the clergyman about the history of his charity, he notices a fancy man dressed to the nines. He's got a manservant who does nearly everything for him, so he doesn't ever have to get his hands dirty.
  • Grey-and-white pegs this guy as a generous donor and excuses himself to go get it.
  • Fancy-pants is a good dude. At least that's his major vibe, though the narrator makes a distinction between being good and being righteous. Basically, people would be willing to die for a good man, but not so much for a righteous one. That's too bad for Grey-and-white, who's described as pretty darn righteous by the narrator.
  • Grey-and-white has surmised correctly, at any rate, and the good guy drops some hefty cash money on him. In an offhand comment, he mentions to Grey-and-white that it would just be easier if all the charities teamed up to form one big charity.
  • Grey-and-white's response: Shut up. No way. That's totally what I said at the world's fair. They laughed at me, though.
  • Good guy: Whoa, really? Why were you there?
  • Grey-and-white: I invented a special wheelchair.
  • Good guy: That's awesome.
  • Grey-and-white: Yeah. I'm really awesome. But when I said we should have a one-world-order kind of tax to raise enough money and pay for all the things—including converting everybody to Christianity—nobody was on my side.
  • At this point the good guy gives Grey-and-white his best "What even?" stare and starts with the whole "Let's be logical" thing. He still admires Grey-and-white's enthusiasm, though, and hands him another crisp bill.