here that
at last they settled down to enjoy the fruit of that long struggle and
comparative victory which brought them so near their much desired
goal--an indestructible and unchangeable competence which no winds of
ill fortune could readily destroy.

Eugene was quite beside himself with joy and satisfaction at thus
finding himself and Angela eventually surrounded by those tokens of
luxury, comfort and distinction which had so long haunted his brain.
Most of us go through life with the furniture of our prospective castle
well outlined in mind, but with never the privilege of seeing it
realized. We have our pictures, our hangings, our servitors well and
ably selected. Eugene's were real at last.

CHAPTER XLII

The affairs of the United Magazines Corporation, so far as the
advertising, commercial and manufacturing ends at least were concerned,
were not in such an unfortunate condition by any means as to preclude
their being quickly restored by tact, good business judgment and hard
work. Since the accession to power of Florence White in the commercial
and financial ends, things in that quarter at least had slowly begun to
take a turn for the better. Although he had no judgment whatsoever as to
what constituted a timely article, an important book or a saleable art
feature, he had that peculiar intuition for right methods of
manufacture, right buying and right selling of stock, right handling of
labor from the cost and efficiency point of view, which made him a power
to be reckoned with. He knew a good manufacturing man to employ at
sight. He knew where books could be sold and how. He knew how to buy
paper in large quantities and at the cheapest rates, and how to print
and manufacture at a cost which was as low as could possibly be figured.
All waste was eliminated. He used his machines to their utmost capacity,
via a series of schedules which saved an immense amount of waste and
demanded the least possible help. He was constantly having trouble with
the labor unions on this score, for they objected to a policy which cut
out duplication of effort and so eliminated their men. He was an iron
master, however, coarse, brutal, foul when dealing with them, and they
feared and respected him.

In the advertising end of the business things had been going rather
badly, for the reason that the magazines for which this department was
supposed to get business had not been doing so well editorially. They
were out of touch w