he had called the verses obscene. He announced that
his wife had inspired the poem, saw to it that the news reached the ears
of a reporter, and submitted to an interview by a staff writer who was
accompanied by a staff photographer and a staff artist. The result was a
full page in a Sunday supplement, filled with photographs and idealized
drawings of Marian, with many intimate details of Martin Eden and his
family, and with the full text of "The Palmist" in large type, and
republished by special permission of Mackintosh's Magazine. It caused
quite a stir in the neighborhood, and good housewives were proud to have
the acquaintances of the great writer's sister, while those who had not
made haste to cultivate it. Hermann von Schmidt chuckled in his little
repair shop and decided to order a new lathe. "Better than advertising,"
he told Marian, "and it costs nothing."

"We'd better have him to dinner," she suggested.

And to dinner Martin came, making himself agreeable with the fat
wholesale butcher and his fatter wife--important folk, they, likely to be
of use to a rising young man like Hermann Von Schmidt. No less a bait,
however, had been required to draw them to his house than his great
brother-in-law. Another man at table who had swallowed the same bait was
the superintendent of the Pacific Coast agencies for the Asa Bicycle
Company. Him Von Schmidt desired to please and propitiate because from
him could be obtained the Oakland agency for the bicycle. So Hermann von
Schmidt found it a goodly asset to have Martin for a brother-in-law, but
in his heart of hearts he couldn't understand where it all came in. In
the silent watches of the night, while his wife slept, he had floundered
through Martin's books and poems, and decided that the world was a fool
to buy them.

And in his heart of hearts Martin understood the situation only too well,
as he leaned back and gloated at Von Schmidt's head, in fancy punching it
well-nigh off of him, sending blow after blow home just right--the
chuckle-headed Dutchman! One thing he did like about him, however. Poor
as he was, and determined to rise as he was, he nevertheless hired one
servant to take the heavy work off of Marian's hands. Martin talked with
the superintendent of the Asa agencies, and after dinner he drew him
aside with Hermann, whom he backed financially for the best bicycle store
with fittings in Oakland. He went further, and in a private talk with
Hermann