is a great concern. I have no doubt that under Mr. Colfax's
management it has a brilliant future in store for it. He is an able man.
If you finally decide to go, come and tell me and there will be no hard
feelings one way or the other. If you decide to stay, the new salary
arrangement goes into effect at once. As a matter of fact, I might as
well have Mr. Fredericks credit that up to you so that you can say that
you have drawn that sum here. It won't do you any harm. Then we can run
along as before. I know it isn't good business as a rule to try and keep
a man who has been poisoned by a bigger offer, and because I know that
is the reason why I am only offering you fourteen thousand dollars this
year. I want to be sure that you are sure that you want to stay. See?"

He smiled.

Eugene arose. "I see," he said. "You are one of the best men I have ever
known, Mr. Kalvin. You have constantly treated me with more
consideration than I ever expected to receive anywhere. It has been a
pleasure and a privilege to work for you. If I stay, it will be because
I want to because I value your friendship."

"Well," said Kalvin quietly, "that's very nice, I'm sure, and I
appreciate it. But don't let your friendship for me or your sense of
gratitude stop you from doing something you think you ought to do. Go
ahead if you feel like it. I won't feel the least bit angry with you.
I'll feel sorry, but that's neither here nor there. Life is a constant
condition of readjustment, and every good business man knows it."

He took Eugene's extended hand.

"Good luck," he said, "whatever you do"--his favorite expression.

CHAPTER XL

The upshot of Eugene's final speculation was that he accepted the offer
of the United Magazines Corporation and left Mr. Kalvin. Colfax had
written one day to his house asking him what he thought he would do
about it. The more he had turned it over in his mind, the more it had
grown in attraction. The Colfax company was erecting a tremendous
building, eighteen stories high, in the heart of the middle business
district in New York near Union Square, to house all their departments.
Colfax had said at the time Eugene took dinner with him that the
sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth floors would be devoted to the
editorial, publication, circulation, art, and advertising departments.
He had asked Eugene what he had thought would be a good floor
arrangement, and the latter, with his usual facility for scheming