one could regret it
more than he. But, really, gentlemen, to call it a breach of faith--

What else was it? Wasn't the paper turning on its own advertisers?

Well; in a sense. But not--

But nothing! Wasn't it trying to undermine their legitimate business?

Not intentionally, Mr. Haring was (piteously) sure.

Intentionally be damned! Did he expect to carry their advertising on one
page and ruin their business on another? Did he think they were putting
money into The Patriot--a doubtful medium for their business, at
best--to cut their own throats? They'd put it to him reasonably, now;
who, after all, paid for the getting out of The Patriot? Wasn't it the
advertisers?

Certainly, certainly, gentlemen. Granted.

Could the paper run a month, a fortnight, a week without advertising?

No; no! It couldn't. No newspaper could.

Then if the advertisers paid the paper's way, weren't they entitled to
some say about it? Didn't it have a right to give 'em at least a fair
show?

Indeed, gentlemen, if he, Haring, were in control of the paper--

Then, why; why the _hell_ was a cub of an editor allowed to cut loose
and jump their game that way? They could find other places to spend
their money; yes, and get a better return for it. They'd see The
Patriot, and so on, and so forth.

Mr. Haring understood their feelings, sympathized, even shared them.
Unfortunately the editorial page was quite out of his province.

Whose province was it, then? Mr. Banneker's, eh? And to whom was Mr.
Banneker responsible? Mr. Marrineal, alone? All right! They would see
Mr. Marrineal.

Mr. Haring was sorry, but Mr. Marrineal was out of town. (Fiction.)

Well, in that case, Banneker. They'd trust themselves to show him which
foot he got off on. They'd teach (two of them, in their stress of
emotion, said "learn"; they were performing this in chorus) Banneker--

Oh, Mr. Banneker wasn't there, either. (Haring, very terrified, and
having built up an early conception of the Wild West Banneker from the
clean-up of the dock gang, beheld in his imagination dejected members of
the committee issuing piecemeal from the doors and windows of the
editorial office, the process being followed by an even more regrettable
exodus of advertising from the pages of The Patriot.)

Striving to be at once explanatory and propitiatory to all and sundry,
Haring was reduced to inarticulate, choking interjections and paralytic
motions of the hands, when a member of th