ars
isn't quite a man?"

"Surely he's quite a man; but the man who bosses men's minds a thousand
years after he's dead--he's the real one. And that kind of a man, so
far's I know things, Necker, never lived too comfortably on earth. He
can't. I tell you, Necker, you can't be born into a fat life without
being born into a fat soul, too."

"You're not stinting yourself in the expectation of running things after
you're dead, Welkie?"

Welkie noted the half-ironical smile, but he answered simply, evenly:
"It's not in me; but I'd live even a sparer life than I do, if I thought
anybody after me had a chance."

"You're a hard man to argue with, Welkie, and I'm not going to argue
with you--not on things dead and gone. You're too well posted for me.
But suppose it was that way once, is it that way to-day? I'll bring it
right home to you. Here's the overpowering figure in public life,
Roosevelt, a man you think a lot of probably--was he born in poverty?"

"No, but I notice he cut away from his comfortable quarters about as
soon as his upbringing'd let him."

"Wait. In finance who? Morgan? All right. Son of a millionaire
financier, wasn't he?"

"But if you're going to bring in money----"

"I know. What of the Carnegies and the Rockefellers? you're going to
say. There's where you think you've got me, but you haven't; for I've
always said that being born in poverty fits a man to make money above
all things, because he's brought up to value it out of all proportion to
everything else. But where are they after they get it? America's full of
millionaires who came up out of nothing, but who had to work so hard
getting started that they'd nothing left in 'em or didn't know anything
but money when they got to where they could stop to look around. If they
had any genius to start with, it was dried out of 'em trying to get
going. Hitch any two-mile trotter to an ice-wagon and where will he
finish? You overweight your boy going off and he will be handicapped
out of the race, too. But can I have another one of those cigars?"

"Help yourself."

"Thanks. I wish I had your pull with old Cabada. Now, Welkie, I'm only
trying to show you where you ought to cast aside certain outworn
traditions and face actual present-day truths. Now listen. You probably
don't believe I'm a villain, Welkie, and you know I represent a powerful
corporation--reputable even if powerful. Yes. Well, this work of ours is
good, useful work--don't you think we c