characteristics of yours of which, constituted as I am, I do not
approve. I really must beg of you not to fiddle with those scissors.
Thank you. But they are, happily, quite apart from your work. I do not
permit them to influence my opinion of you by one jot or tittle. You may
entirely reassure yourself. May I inquire why you should have supposed I
had changed my mind?"

"Because I've just heard that you've told Twyning you're going to take
_him_ into partnership."

The whale-like front gave a sudden leap and quiver precisely as if it
had been struck by a cricket ball. Mr. Fortune's voice hardened very
remarkably. "As to that, I will permit myself two remarks. In the first
place, I consider it highly reprehensible of Twyning to have
communicated this to you--"

Sabre broke in. "Well, he didn't. I'd like you to be quite clear on that
point, if you don't mind. Twyning didn't tell me. It came out quite
indirectly in the course of something I was saying to him. I doubt if he
knows that I know even. I inferred it. It seems I inferred correctly."

There flashed through Mr. Fortune's mind a poignant regret that, this
being the case, he had not denied it. He said, "I am exceedingly glad to
hear it. I might have known Twyning would not be capable of such a
breach of discretion. Resuming what I had to say--and, Sabre, I shall
indeed be most intensely obliged if you will refrain from fiddling with
the things on my table--resuming what I had to say, I will observe in
the second and last place that I entirely deprecate, I will go further,
I most strongly resent any questioning by any one member of my staff
based on any intentions of mine relative to another member of my staff.
This business is my business. I think you are sometimes a little prone
to forget that. If it seems good to me to strengthen your hand in your
department that has nothing whatever to do with Twyning. And if it seems
good to me to strengthen Twyning's hand in Twyning's department that has
nothing whatever to do with you."

Sabre, despite his private feelings in the matter, characteristically
followed this reasoning completely, and said so. "Yes, that's your way
of looking at it, sir, and I don't say it isn't perfectly sound--from
your point of view--"

Mr. Fortune inclined his head solemnly: "I am obliged to you."

"--Only other people look at things on the face of them, just as they
appear. You know--it's difficult to express it--I've put my heart into