, he'd
sniff, 'The fellow don't know what he's talking about; everybody in all
the offices I know is perfectly satisfied.'"

"Yes, changes will be slow, I suppose, but that doesn't excuse bosses of
to-day for thinking they are little tin gods."

"No, of course it doesn't. But people in authority always do that. The
only thing we can do about it is for us, personally, to make our offices
as clean and amusing as we can, instead of trying to buy yachts. But
don't ever think either that capitalists are a peculiar race of fiends,
different from anarchists or scrubwomen, or that we'll have a millennium
about next election. We've got to be anthropological in our view. It's
taken the human race about five hundred thousand years to get where it
is, and presumably it will take quite a few thousand more to become
scientific or even to understand the need of scientific conduct of
everything. I'm not at all sure that there's any higher wisdom than
doing a day's work, and hoping the Subway will be a little less crowded
next year, and in voting for the best possible man, and then forgetting
all the _Weltschmertz_, and going to an opera. It sounds pretty raw and
crude, doesn't it? But living in a world that's raw and crude, all you
can do is to be honest and not worry."

"Yes," said Una.

She grieved for the sunset-colored ideals of Mamie Magen, for the fine,
strained, hysterical enthusiasms of Walter Babson, as an enchantment of
thought which she was dispelling in her effort to become a "good, sound,
practical business woman." Mr. Fein's drab opportunist philosophy
disappointed her. Yet, in contrast to Mr. Schwirtz, Mr. Truax, and
Chas., he was hyperbolic; and after their dinner she was gushingly happy
to be hearing the opportunist melodies of "Il Trovatore" beside him.

Sec. 3

The Merryton Realty Company had failed, and Truax & Fein were offered
the small development property of Crosshampton Hill Gardens at so
convenient a price that they could not refuse it, though they were
already "carrying" as many properties as they could easily handle. In a
characteristic monologue Mr. Truax asked a select audience, consisting
of himself, his inkwell, and Una, what he was to do.

"Shall I try to exploit it and close it out quick? I've got half a mind
to go back to the old tent-and-brass-band method and auction it off. The
salesmen have all they can get away with. I haven't even a good,
reliable resident salesman I could trust to hand