e by fourteen (14) days, reckoning from the
date of the present communication. At the end of that period the
salary demanded would be increased by ten pounds (L10) over and above
that asked in my _first_ application. Thus, by accepting the existing
offer of twenty pounds (L20) reduction, they would really be securing
me at thirty pounds (L30) less than my market price.

I waited patiently for a further fourteen days, and then sent
Follow-up Letter No. 5.

This letter was quite brief. It made no attempt to disguise the fact
that I was hurt at the firm's silence, and it hinted at enquiries from
other employers of labour whose needs would have to be considered.
It intimated also that I could not possibly hold myself at the firm's
disposal indefinitely, and that unless a prompt reply was received
I could not guarantee acceptance. By way of a crushing suggestion of
niggardliness on their part I enclosed a stamped addressed envelope.

An answer came by return of post as follows:--

DEAR SIR,--In reply to your letter, we beg to say that the vacancy to
which you refer was filled some ten (10) weeks ago.

Yours faithfully, etc.

Now I know where I am. Without this persistence, which is the essence
of the following-up business, I should simply be where I am without
knowing it.

* * * * *

[Illustration: _Lady Cynthia_ (_showing wounded Tommies the ancestral
portraits_). "AND THIS IS THE FIRST EARL IN FULL FIGHTING KIT."

_Tommy_. "HE'S GOT HIS IDENTIFICATION DISC ALL RIGHT, MA'AM."]

* * * * *

BACCHUS AT THE FRONT.

Extract from a speech by the KAISER as reported by _The Sun_
(Vancouver, B.C.):--

"The campaign ... had been conducted according to the
brilliant plans of Field-Marshal von Hindenburg.... The old
god of bottles directed. We were his instruments and we are
proud of it."

* * * * *

"Among some of the best-informed bankers in the City the view
taken in this respect is one which it may be well for the
public at large to have repeated for their own guidance. The
new War Loan, they say, will either be the last before the
Allies impose on the enemy their own terms of peace, or it
will not."--_The Times_.

We had already formed the same opinion, but we are glad to have it
confirmed on such high authority.

* * * * *

"Barrow magist