Dear Dr. Boli: I suppose you think you’re pretty clever, don’t you? —Sincerely, The Man in the Grey Fedora Outside Your Window.

Dear Sir: Dr. Boli has really never given the matter much thought. He is not quite certain whether “cleverness” is the desideratum it is often made out to be. Solomon was a clever man, yet his economic policies ruined the kingdom of Israel. Isaac Newton was a clever man, yet, when he sat under an apple tree, all his cleverness could not save him from a nasty bump on the head. Dr. Boli prefers to think that his success is attributable to a humble but persistent exercise of those virtues whose use is available to all, rather than referring it to any exceptional quality of “cleverness.”

Or perhaps you are referring to the fact that Dr. Boli, having observed you following him for the past three days with doubtless nefarious motives, had alerted the city police to your position, giving an accurate and thorough description of the face you made such ineffectual attempts to hide; and that, even as your message was being received by his secretary, you were already being restrained and led away by uniformed officers. In that case, yes, Dr. Boli thinks he is pretty clever after all.