e came in and seated himself
quietly and unobtrusively in some corner, "we have a very difficult
thing here to solve today. I want to know what you think could be done
in such and such a case," describing a particular condition.

Eugene would brace himself up and begin to consider, but rumination was
not what Summerfield wanted from anyone.

"Well, professor! well! well!" he would exclaim.

Eugene would stir irritably. This was so embarrassing--in a way so
degrading to him.

"Come to life, professor," Summerfield would go on. He seemed to have
concluded long before that the gad was the most effective commercial
weapon.

Eugene would then make some polite suggestion, wishing instead that he
could tell him to go to the devil, but that was not the end of it.
Before all the old writers, canvassers, trade aid men--sometimes one or
two of his own artists who might be working upon the particular task in
question, he would exclaim: "Lord! what a poor suggestion!" or "can't
you do any better than that, professor?" or "good heavens, I have three
or four ideas better than that myself." The best he would ever say in
conference was, "Well, there may be something in that," though
privately, afterwards, he might possibly express great pleasure. Past
achievements counted for nothing; that was so plain. One might bring in
gold and silver all day long; the next day there must be more gold and
silver and in larger quantities. There was no end to the man's appetite.
There was no limit to the speed at which he wished to drive his men.
There was no limit to the venomous commercial idea as an idea.
Summerfield set an example of nagging and irritating insistence, and he
urged all his employees to the same policy. The result was a
bear-garden, a den of prize-fighters, liars, cutthroats and thieves in
which every man was for himself openly and avowedly and the devil take
the hindmost.

CHAPTER XXXV

Still time went by, and although things did not improve very much in his
office over the standards which he saw prevailing when he came there, he
was obviously getting things much better arranged in his private life.
In the first place Angela's attitude was getting much better. The old
agony which had possessed her in the days when he was acting so badly
had modified as day by day she saw him working and conducting himself
with reasonable circumspection. She did not trust him as yet. She was
not sure that he had utterly broken with C