ak, and said,
"Hello, young man! Who invited you to take the floor?"

"Nobody. I found I couldn't embody my general knowledge of defalcation
in the report without impertinence, and as I had to get my wisdom off my
mind somehow, I put it in editorial shape. I don't expect you to take
it. Perhaps I can sell it somewhere."

Ricker seemed to pay no attention to his explanation. He went on reading
the manuscript, and when he ended, he took up the report again, and
compared it with the editorial in length. "If we printed these things as
they stand it would look like a case of the tail wagging the dog."

Maxwell began again, "Oh, I didn't expect--"

"Oh, yes, you did," said Ricker. "Of course, you felt that the report
was at least physically inadequate."

"I made as much as I honestly could of it. I knew you didn't like
padding or faking, and I don't myself."

Ricker was still holding the two manuscripts up before him. He now
handed them over his shoulder to Maxwell, where he stood beside him. "Do
you think you could weld these two things together?"

"I don't know."

"Suppose you try."

"As editorial, or--"

"Either. I'll decide after you're done. Do it here."

He pushed some papers off the long table beside him, and Maxwell sat
down to his task. It was not difficult. The material was really of
kindred character throughout. He had merely to write a few prefatory
sentences, in the editorial attitude, to his report, and then append the
editorial, with certain changes, again. It did not take him long; in
half an hour he handed the result to Ricker.

"Yes," said Ricker, and he began to read it anew, with his blue pencil
in his hand.

Maxwell had come with nerves steeled to bear the rejection of his
article entire, but he was not prepared to suffer the erasure of all his
pet phrases and favorite sentences, sometimes running to entire
paragraphs.

When Ricker handed it back to him at last with "What do you think of it
now?" Maxwell had the boldness to answer, "Well, Mr. Ricker, if I _must_
say, I think you've taken all the bones and blood out of it."

Ricker laughed. "Oh, no! Merely the fangs and poison-sacks. Look here,
young man! Did you believe all those cynical things when you were saying
them?"

"I don't know--"

"_I_ know. I know you _didn't_. Every one of them rang false. They were
there for literary effect, and for the pleasure of the groundlings. But
by and by, if you keep on saying those things, you'