omobile was very large and very new, the latest model, a great dark
blue affair which ran as silently as a sewing machine. The footman who
opened the door was six feet tall, dressed in knee breeches and a
swallow-tailed coat. The valet was a Japanese, silent, polite,
attentive. Eugene was introduced to Mrs. Colfax, a most graceful but
somewhat self-conscious woman. A French maid later presented two
children, a boy and a girl.

Eugene by now had become used to luxury in various forms, and this house
was not superior to many he had seen; but it ranked with the best.
Colfax was most free in it. He threw his overcoat to the valet
carelessly and tossed his babies in the air by turn, when they were
presented to him by the French maid. His wife, slightly taller than
himself, received a resounding smack.

"There, Ceta," he exclaimed (a diminutive for Cecile, as Eugene
subsequently learned), "how do you like that, eh? Meet Mr. Witla. He's
an artist and an art director and an advertising manager and----"

"A most humble person," put in Eugene smilingly. "Not half as bad as you
may think. His report is greatly exaggerated."

Mrs. Colfax smiled sweetly. "I discount much that he says at once," she
returned. "More later. Won't you come up into the library?"

They ascended together, jesting. Eugene was pleased with what he saw.
Mrs. Colfax liked him. She excused herself after a little while and
Colfax talked life in general. "I'm going to show you my house now, and
after dinner I'm going to talk a little business to you. You interest
me. I may as well tell you that."

"Well, you interest me, Colfax," said Eugene genially, "I like you."

"You don't like me any more than I like you, that's a sure thing,"
replied the other.

CHAPTER XXXIX

The results of this evening were most pleasant, but in some ways
disconcerting. It became perfectly plain that Colfax was anxious to have
Eugene desert the Kalvin Company and come over to him.

"You people over there," he said to him at one stage of the
conversation, "have an excellent company, but it doesn't compare with
this organization which we are revising. Why, what are your two
publications to our seven? You have one eminently successful one--the
one you're on--and no book business whatsoever! We have seven
publications all doing excellently well, and a book business that is
second to none in the country. You know that. If it hadn't been that the
business had been horribly mi