s
speaking to this meadow, his theme being "Education and the Rise of the
Masses," and the people, displaying an enthusiasm rare at lectures upon
such topics, roared their approval as he shot at them great terse
truths, the essence of wide reading and profound wisdom put up in
pellets of pungent epigram. He rose at a long dinner-table, so placed
that as he stood his eye swept down rows upon rows of other long tables,
where the diners had all pushed back their chairs to turn and look at
him. His words were honeyed, of a magic compelling power, so that as he
reached his peroration, aged magnates could not be restrained from
producing fountain-pen and check-book; he saw them pushing aside
coffee-cups to indite rows of o's of staggering length. Blames College
now tenanted a new home on a grassy knoll outside the city. The single
ramshackle barn which had housed the institution prior to the coming of
President West was replaced by a cluster of noble edifices of classic
marble. The president sat in his handsome office, giving an audience to
a delegation of world-famous professors from the University of Paris.
They had been dispatched by the French nation to study his methods on
the ground.

"Why, _hello_, Colonel! Bless your heart, I _am_ glad to see you,
sir...."

Colonel Cowles, looking up from his ancient seat, gave an exclamation of
surprise and pleasure. He welcomed the young man affectionately. West
sat down, and once more pen-sketched his travels and his plans for
Blames College. He was making a second, or miniature, grand tour that
afternoon, regreeting all his friends, and was thus compelled to tell
his story many times; but his own interest in it appeared ever fresh.
For Blames he asked and was promised the kindly offices of the Post.

The Colonel, in his turn, gave a brief account of his vacationless
summer, of his daily work, of the progress of the _Post's_ Policies.

"I hear," said West, "that that little scientist I made you a present of
last year has made a ten-strike."

"Queed? An extraordinary thing," said the Colonel, relighting his cigar.
"I was on the point of discharging him, you remember, with the hearty
approval of the directors. His stuff was dismal, abysmal, and hopeless.
One day he turned around and began handing in stuff of a totally
different kind. First-rate, some of it. I thought at first that he must
be hiring somebody to do it for him. Did you see the paper while you
were away?"

"Very