hair needed cutting badly. For the first
time in his life he suffered a pang of regret that the configuration of
his neck prevented his wearing a collar which fit him.

As he looked down at her hand in his, smooth, well-formed, the fingers
tapering delicately, yet with a flow of muscle under the integument
revealing bridle-strength--for horse or man--he sighed. His own seemed
so huge and formless, with its mountainous purple veins, its coarse
black hair, like forests, and the spatulate nails--clumsy, broken,
yellow where hers were pink ... hastily his hand sought his pocket.

"Well," she said, when the silence threatened to become embarrassing,
"what's the news from the scene of action?"

He drew a bulky envelope from his coat, and tried to forget her physical
presence. But to the familiar smell of burning leaves clung a faint
scent of jaqueminot. His hand trembled a little as he turned the pages
of the documents.

"You'll be disappointed," he whispered huskily.

"Why?"

"It's a poor showing."

"Wasn't that to be expected?"

"In a way, yes, but...."

"Is it as bad as it might be?"

"Well, no, but...."

"Tell me about it, then." She had seated herself and was busy with the
tea things which a maid had brought in. Good found it necessary to read
words several times before he caught their meaning. It was difficult to
keep his eyes upon the paper.

"Shall I give the inventory first?" he asked.

"Oh, don't bother with the details. I can read all that later. Just give
a summary--and tell me what it all means."

He cleared his throat. "Well--advertising fell off fast at first. Then
some of it came back. Mostly small stuff, though. The big stores have
never come back. And all the heavy advertisers, like the telephone and
the electric light companies, seem gone for good. Advertising revenue
has been cut in half--maybe a little more."

"But you expected that."

"Oh, yes. It's quite natural. We've hammered the telephone company
pretty hard on its purchase of the independents. And of course you know
what we did to the department stores. Oh, I knew we'd lose advertising.
But the circulation--that's been more disappointing."

"Has it fallen off?"

"Pretty badly. I knew we'd lose at first. But I thought we'd gain
later. We haven't, though--not as we should. People don't seem to want
the truth--unless it's sensational. They want excitement and
partisanship. Sometimes I think they'd rather be lied to than not. An