ies of the situation, and having--by reason of the time he
had been employed and the privileges he had permitted himself on account
of his comfortable and probably never before experienced salary--sold
himself into bondage to his now fancied necessities, was usually humble
and tractable under the most galling fire. Where could he go and get
five thousand dollars a year for his services? How could he live at the
rate he was living if he lost this place? Art directorships were not
numerous. Men who could fill them fairly acceptably were not impossible
to find. If he thought at all and was not a heaven-born genius serene in
the knowledge of his God-given powers, he was very apt to hesitate, to
worry, to be humble and to endure a good deal. Most men under similar
circumstances do the same thing. They think before they fling back into
the teeth of their oppressors some of the slurs and brutal
characterizations which so frequently issue therefrom. Most men do.
Besides there is almost always a high percentage of truth in the charges
made. Usually the storm is for the betterment of mankind.
Mr. Summerfield knew this. He knew also the yoke of poverty and the
bondage of fear which most if not all his men were under. He had no
compunctions about using these weapons, much as a strong man might use a
club. He had had a hard life himself. No one had sympathized with him
very much. Besides you couldn't sympathize and succeed. Better look the
facts in the face, deal only with infinite capacity, roughly weed out
the incompetents and proceed along the line of least resistance, in so
far as your powerful enemies were concerned. Men might theorize and
theorize until the crack of doom, but this was the way the thing had to
be done and this was the way he preferred to do it.

Eugene had never heard of any of these facts in connection with the
Summerfield Company. The idea had been flung at him so quickly he had no
time to think, and besides if he had had time it would have made no
difference. A little experience of life had taught him as it teaches
everyone else to mistrust rumor. He had applied for the place on hearing
and he was hoping to get it. At noon the day following his visit to
Mr. Baker Bates, the latter was speaking for him to Mr. Summerfield, but
only very casually.

"Say," he asked, quite apropos of nothing apparently, for they were
discussing the chances of his introducing his product into South
America, "do you ever have need