te with many of them personally. Some of them, such as
Hayes, the advertising man, the circulation manager, the editor of the
_International Review_, the editor in charge of books, were so very able
that, although it was true that Eugene had hired them it was practically
settled that they could not be removed. Colfax and White had come to
understand by degrees that Eugene was a person who, however brilliant he
might be in selecting men, was really not capable of attention to
detail. He could not bring his mind down to small practical points. If
he had been an owner, like Colfax, or a practical henchman like White,
he would have been perfectly safe, but being a natural-born leader, or
rather organizer, he was, unless he secured control in the beginning,
rather hopeless and helpless when organization was completed. Others
could attend to details better than he could. Colfax came to know his
men and like them. In absences which had become more frequent, as Eugene
became more secure, and as he took up with Winfield, they had first gone
to Colfax for advice, and later, in Colfax's absence, to White. The
latter received them with open arms. Indeed, among themselves, his
lieutenants frequently discussed Eugene and agreed that in organizing,
or rather reorganizing the place, he had done his great work. He might
have been worth twenty-five thousand a year doing that, but hardly as a
man to sit about and cool his heels after the work was done. White had
persistently whispered suggestions of Eugene's commercial inefficiency
for the task he was essaying to Colfax. "He is really trying to do up
there what you ought to be doing," he told him, "and what you can do
better. You want to remember that you've learned a lot since you came in
here, and so has he, only he has become a little less practical and you
have become more so. These men of his look more to you now than they do
to him."

Colfax rejoiced in the thought. He liked Eugene, but he liked the idea
better that his business interests were perfectly safe. He did not like
to think that any one man was becoming so strong that his going would
injure him, and this thought for a long time during Eugene's early
ascendancy had troubled him. The latter had carried himself with such an
air. Eugene had fancied that Colfax needed to be impressed with his
importance, and this, in addition to his very thorough work, was one way
to do it. His manner had grated on Colfax after a time, for he wa