"At least, not yet. I'm going to as soon as I can
find the requisite leisure. You see, we are very busy just now--very
busy. But if you can vouch for the story being a first-class
article--something, say, like 'The Vicar of Wakefield' or 'David
Harum'--we'll take it."

"Now you're talking," she said. "And do I get the check now?"

"Wait," I said; "not so fast. I have forgotten one thing," and I saw her
face fall. "We want the privilege of publishing the novel under a title
of our own, and anonymously. If that is not satisfactory the deal is
off."

She brightened in a moment.

"It's a go, if that's all," she said. "Call it whatever you please, and
the more anonymous it is the better it will suit yours truly."

So we settled the matter then and there, and when I gave her our check
for a thousand she said I was all right.

III

Half an hour after Miss Vincent had left the office Perkins came in with
his arms full of bundles, which he opened, spreading their contents on
my desk.

He had a pair of suspenders with nickel-silver mountings, a tie, a
lady's belt, a pair of low shoes, a shirt, a box of cigars, a package of
cookies, and a half-dozen other things of divers and miscellaneous
character. I poked them over and examined them, while he leaned against
the desk with his legs crossed. He was beaming upon me.

"Well," I said, "what is it--a bargain sale?"

Perkins leaned over and tapped the pile with his long fore-finger.

"Aftermath!" he crowed, "aftermath!"

"The dickens it is," I exclaimed, "and what has aftermath got to do with
this truck? It looks like the aftermath of a notion store."

He tipped his "Air-the-Hair" hat over one ear and put his thumbs in the
armholes of his "ready-tailored" vest.

"Genius!" he announced. "Brains! Foresight! Else why Perkins the Great?
Why not Perkins the Nobody?"

He raised the suspenders tenderly from the pile and fondled them in his
hands.

"See this?" he asked, running his finger along the red corded edge of
the elastic. He took up the tie and ran his nail along the red stripe
that formed the selvedge on the back, and said: "See this?" He pointed
to the red laces of the low shoes and asked, "See this?" And so through
the whole collection.

"What is it?" he asked. "It's genius! It's foresight."

He waved his hand over the pile.

"The aftermath!" he exclaimed.

"These suspenders are the Crimson Cord suspenders. These shoes are the
Crimson Cord shoes. This ti