nd Dorothy's face
with happy smiles.

"Tom," said the father, "if I had opened that letter instead of Dolly!"

Dorothy suddenly became demure under their gaze and sought to change the
subject. "Then you admit, daddy, that a college man is of some use?"

"I'll admit that Tom got the business. But that was because he is
naturally clever and business-like, not because----"

"Just a moment," said Brainard. "I think I can show that you're
mistaken. I found out that Pepper was doing the wrong thing--by the
first rule of criticism (freshman English): 'What is the author trying
to do? Does he do it? Is it worth doing?' Substitute 'advertising man'
for 'author' and you have a business that is worth doing (since you
continue it)--and by the other two questions I saw his incongruity of
subject-matter and expression.' My economics taught me the 'law of
supply and demand.' 'Analytical research of original authorities' taught
me where the demand was. There was only the problem of a cause to
stimulate it. Through deductive logic' and 'psychology' I got the cause
that would appeal, and the effect worked out in an increased demand
which we were ready to supply--just like a problem in math."

The elder man smiled. "I don't understand a word you say, but it seems
to have _worked_ well. In the future, bring in as many of your Noughty
friends as we need. I'll answer for Kaufmann."

The other shook his head. "I'm not sure they would be any too anxious."

Houghton gasped in surprise. "What's that--they wouldn't be anxious to
go into _business_! Why not?"

"Why not?" There was equal amazement in the younger man's tone. "Would
you be anxious to leave a place where you're surrounded by friends
you've tried--friends that won't stab you in the back the next minute
and call it a 'business deal'--where you're respected and in control of
things, and plunge out to become a freshman in the world-life, to do the
sorting and trying all over again?"

"I remember--I remember----"

"And besides, what right has any one to assume that _business_ is above
art, charity or even mere learning? Billy Tompkins, in the slums helping
dagoes, is a failure to his father--so is Aspwell with his opera--so is
Williams with his spectacles in his lab. But--who knows--when the Great
Business is finally balanced----" He stopped, conscious that he was
growing too rhetorical.

"If you loved college ideals so much more than business," observed
Houghton, "then why di