man, on which for a moment his mental
vision lingered, to be rudely broken by--"A penny for your thoughts, Mr.
Editor," from Flo.

The shutter came down with a rush.

CHAPTER XIV

FATE AND A FIDDLER

IN the life of journalism--many ways the least conventional of callings,
in which there remains even in our prosaic day a savour of
Bohemianism--there is still the need to observe the conventions of a
commercial age. An editor who familiarises with his reporters imperils
his authority, for every man of his staff considers himself to be as
good a craftsman as the editor; and does not the humblest junior carry
in his wallet the potential quill of an editor-in-chief?

A newspaper, moreover, for all the prating about the profession of
journalism, is as much a business establishment as the grocer's round
the corner. _Ergo_, if the grocer has his villa, so must the editor. If
the editor be a bachelor, then the dignity of his paper demands that he
shall take lodging in the most pretentious neighbourhood his means will
allow.

Perhaps this had not occurred to Henry until a fairly broad hint from
the manager indicated what was expected of him. Perhaps, also, it was
the need to move into "swagger diggings" that superinduced the
aforesaid attack of "swelled head." Henry justified to himself his
removal, and the increased expense entailed thereby, on the ground that
his collection of books, mainly review copies, defaced by obnoxious
rubber stamps--"With the publisher's compliments"--was rapidly growing
beyond the accommodation of his tiny sitting-room. So to the spacious
house of a certain Mrs. Arkwright, in the aristocratic neighbourhood of
Park Road, he moved with his belongings.

His new apartments were luxurious beyond the wildest dreams of his early
youth, and for that reason alone he stood in imminent danger of
developing expensive tastes. Ah, these furnished apartments of our
bachelor days! At an outlay comparatively small contrasted with the
immediate end attained, they lift the young man into an easeful
atmosphere he would fain continue when he sets up house of his own; only
to find that the hire of two well-appointed rooms is child's play to the
maintenance of a house on the same scale. With the more cautious the
convenience of first-class apartments makes housekeeping appear
formidable. And there you have the secret "love story" of many an easy
bachelo