istic
to the roots, but it did not develop a sense of loyalty in him. He saw
in Eugene a man who had risen by some fluke of fortune, and who was
really not an advertising man at heart. He hoped some day that
circumstances would bring it about that he could be advertising manager
in fact, dealing directly with Colfax and White, whom, because of their
greater financial interest in the business, he considered Eugene's
superiors, and whom he proposed to court. There were others in the other
departments who felt the same way.

The one great difficulty with Eugene was that he had no great power of
commanding the loyalty of his assistants. He had the power of inspiring
them--of giving them ideas which would be helpful to themselves--but
these they used, as a rule, merely to further their own interests, to
cause them to advance to a point where they deemed themselves beyond
him. Because in his manner he was not hard, distant, bitter, he was
considered, as a rule, rather easy. The men whom he employed, and he had
talent for picking men of very exceptional ability, sometimes much
greater than his own in their particular specialties, looked upon him
not so much as a superior after a time, as someone who was in their path
and to whose shoes they might properly aspire. He seemed so good natured
about the whole work--so easy going. Now and then he took the trouble to
tell a man that he was getting too officious, but in the main he did not
care much. Things were going smoothly, the magazines were improving, the
advertising and circulation departments were showing marked gains, and
altogether his life seemed to have blossomed out into comparative
perfection. There were storms and daily difficulties, but they were not
serious. Colfax advised with him genially when he was in doubt, and
White pretended a friendship which he did not feel.

CHAPTER XLIII

The trouble with this situation was that it involved more power,
comfort, ease and luxury than Eugene had ever experienced before, and
made him a sort of oriental potentate not only among his large company
of assistants but in his own home. Angela, who had been watching his
career all these years with curiosity, began to conceive of him at last
as a genius in every respect--destined to some great pre-eminence, in
art or finance or the publishing world or all three. She did not relax
her attitude in regard to his conduct, being more convinced than ever
that to achieve the dizzy e