t that if I put the screw on all round I could
quite justifiably increase my profits by fifty per cent.'

'That shows what a splendid prospect a limited company would have.'

'Yes, doesn't it?' said Hugo joyously.

'But why are your clients so anxious to turn me into a limited
company?'

'They see in your undertaking,' replied Polycarp, folding his thin
hands, 'a legitimate opening for that joint-stock enterprise which has
had such a beneficial effect on England's prosperity.'

'They would make a profit?'

'A reasonable profit. A small syndicate would be formed to buy from you,
and that syndicate would sell to a public company. The usual thing.'

'And where do I come in?'

'Where do you come in, my dear Mr. Hugo? Everywhere! You would receive
over a million in cash. You would have your salary and your percentage,
and you would be relieved of all your present risks.'

'All my present risks?'

'You have risks, Mr. Hugo, because your business has increased so
rapidly that your income is out of all proportion to your capital, which
consists almost solely of buildings which you could not sell at anything
like their cost price in open market, and of goodwill. Now, I ask you,
what is goodwill? What _is_ it? Under our scheme you would at once
become a millionaire in actual fact.'

'Decidedly an inviting prospect,' said Hugo.

He walked about the room.

'Then I may take it that you are at any rate prepared to negotiate?' the
lawyer ventured, staring at the fountain.

'Mr. Polycarp,' answered Hugo, 'I must first give you a little
information and ask you a few questions.'

'Certainly.'

Hugo halted in front of Polycarp, close to him, and, lighting a cigar,
gazed down at the frigid lawyer.

'Till the age of twenty-eight,' he began, 'I had no object in life. I
was educated at Oxford. I narrowly escaped the legal profession. I had a
near shave of the Church. I wasted years in aimless travel, waiting for
destiny to turn up. I was conscious of no gift except a power for
organizing. That gift I felt I had, and gradually I perceived that I
would like to be the head of some large and complicated undertaking. I
examined the latest developments of modern existence, and came to the
conclusion that the direction of a thoroughly up-to-date stores would
amuse me as well as anything. So I bought this concern--a flourishing
little drapery and furnishing business it was then. I had exactly fifty
thousand pounds--not a cent mo