sted in you, personally."

Fanny's face flamed scarlet. "I didn't mean that."

"Yes you did. Here are those comparative lists you sent me. If I didn't
know Slosson to be as honest as Old Dog Tray I'd think he had been
selling us to the manufacturers. No wonder this department hasn't paid.
He's been giving 'em top prices for shoddy. Now what's this new plan of
yours?"

In an instant Fanny forgot about Theodore, the new winter suit and furs,
everything but the idea that was clamoring to be born. She sat at her
desk, her fingers folding and unfolding a bit of paper, her face all
light and animation as she talked.

"My idea is to have a person known as a selector for each important
department. It would mean a boiling down of the products of every
manufacturer we deal with, and skimming the cream off the top. As it is
now a department buyer has to do the selecting and buying too. He can't
do both and get results. We ought to set aside an entire floor for the
display of manufacturers' samples. The selector would make his choice
among these, six months in advance of the season. The selector would
go to the eastern markets too, of course. Not to buy. Merely to select.
Then, with the line chosen as far as style, quality, and value
is concerned, the buyer would be free to deal directly with the
manufacturer as to quantity, time, and all that. You know as well as I
that that's enough of a job for any one person, with the labor situation
what it is. He wouldn't need to bother about styles or colors, or any of
that. It would all have been done for him. The selector would have the
real responsibility. Don't you see the simplicity of it, and the way it
would grease the entire machinery?"

Something very like jealousy came into Michael Fenger's face as he
looked at her. But it was gone in an instant. "Gad! You'll have my job
away from me in two years. You're a super-woman, do you know that?"

"Super nothing! It's just a perfectly good idea, founded on common sense
and economy."

"M-m-m, but that's all Columbus had in mind when he started out to find
a short cut to India."

Fanny laughed out at that. "Yes, but see where he landed!"

But Fenger was serious. "We'll have to have a meeting on this. Are you
prepared to go into detail on it, before Mr. Haynes and the two Coopers,
at a real meeting in a real mahogany directors' room? Wednesday, say?"

"I think so."

Fenger got up. "Look here, Miss Brandeis. You need a day in the c