so chanced that the editor of a leading metropolitan paper had
come to the funeral of his former colleague, Michael O'Connor. Meeting
Ebenezer Brown after the funeral, he had asked:

"Who will succeed O'Connor?"

"I am thinking of promoting Gifford," replied the old man.

"Gifford!" cried the editor, under whom many a journalist had graduated.
"Are you quite mad?"

"Are you?" retorted Ebenezer Brown, hotly.

'Many people say I am. But I was sane enough to shoot Gifford out the
first chance I had of ridding the paper of him.

"You sent him to me with a yard of testimonial," growled Ebenezer Brown.

"Diplomacy, my dear sir. I never make an enemy unless I find myself
compelled to do so in self-defence. You needed a new sub-editor, I a new
reporter, and I merely shuffled the cards and dealt them again. In your
case Gifford seems to have proved a success."

"How do you know that?" asked the old man, rudely.

"You are anxious to promote him."

"On your recommendation. 'A brilliant journalist' you called him," cried
Ebenezer Brown.

"And he has been with you six months. Surely you know him by this time?"

"Perhaps you know a better," suggested the old man.

"I know few worse, and I know one man the very man for 'The Observer';
but I doubt if he will come to you," said the editor.

"Why not?" asked Ebenezer Brown.

"Because you sweat your employes. No man but O'Connor would have worked
as editor for the pittance you paid him. Cairns certainly will require a
fair salary and a free hand before he gives 'The Observer' a chance."

Ebenezer Brown recognised the truth of what the editor said. His chief
regret was that Michael O'Connor had not lived for ever. However, after
prolonged negotiations, he accepted Cairns on the latter's own terms.

It was another matter, however, when the editor demanded a more capable
lieutenant than Gifford. Here he found Ebenezer Brown inexorable, for
the sub-editor was linked to him by the triple bonds of flattery,
usefulness, and influence. He made it a rule to regard Ebenezer's every
action as perfection; outside the office he assisted the old man in his
business affairs; and he brought influence to bear in buttressing his
position against the assaults of his chief. The consequence was that he
remained as nominal sub-editor, while Cairns deputed Desmond O'Connor to
do the work. Gifford, recognising the slight, bore his chief and
subordinate no love, but, being unable to injure Cai