ect, insistent, sometimes
dictatorial manner. All the driving Summerfield had done had not
succeeded in breaking his spirit. Instead, it had developed him. From a
lean, pale, artistic soul, wearing a soft hat, he had straightened up
and filled out until now he looked more like a business man than an
artist, with a derby hat, clothes of the latest cut, a ring of oriental
design on his middle finger, and pins and ties which reflected the
prevailing modes.

Eugene's attitude had not as yet changed completely, but it was
changing. He was not nearly so fearsome as he had been. He was beginning
to see that he had talents in more directions than one, and to have the
confidence of this fact. Five thousand dollars in cash, with two or
three hundred dollars being added monthly, and interest at four per
cent, being paid upon it, gave him a reserve of self-confidence. He
began to joke Summerfield himself, for he began to realize that other
advertising concerns might be glad to have him. Word had been brought to
him once that the Alfred Cookman Company, of which Summerfield was a
graduate, was considering making him an offer, and the Twine-Campbell
Company, the largest in the field, was also interested in what he was
doing. His own artists, mostly faithful because he had sought to pay
them well and to help them succeed, had spread his fame greatly.
According to them, he was the sole cause of all the recent successes
which had come to the house, which was not true at all.

A number, perhaps the majority, of things recently had started with him;
but they had been amplified by Summerfield, worked over by the
ad-writing department, revised by the advertisers themselves, and so on
and so forth, until notable changes had been effected and success
achieved. There was no doubt that Eugene was directly responsible for a
share of this. His presence was inspiring, constructive. He keyed up the
whole tone of the Summerfield Company merely by being there; but he was
not all there was to it by many a long step. He realized this himself.

He was not at all offensively egotistic--simply surer, calmer, more
genial, less easily ruffled; but even this was too much. Summerfield
wanted a frightened man, and seeing that Eugene might be getting strong
enough to slip away from him, he began to think how he should either
circumvent his possible sudden flight, or discredit his fame, so that if
he did leave he would gain nothing by it. Neither of them was d