wish?" he smiled.

"There! That is exactly it. You treat me like a child."

"I don't think of you as a child, I assure you."

"You listen to all I say with pretended deference, and smile and--and go
your own way with inevitable motion."

"Wherein have I failed in my allegiance?" asked Hal, courteously
concerned. "Haven't we published everything about all the charities that
you're interested in?"

"Oh, yes. So far as that goes. But the paper itself doesn't seem to
change any. It's got the same tone it always had."

"What's wrong with its tone?" The eyes were leveled at her now.

"Speaking frankly, it's tawdry. It's lurid. It's--well, yellow."

"A matter of method. You're really more interested, then, in the way we
present news than in the news we present."

"I don't know anything about news, itself. But I don't see why a
newspaper run by a gentleman shouldn't be in good taste."

"Nor do I. Except that those things take time. I suppose I've got to get
in touch with my staff before I can reform their way of writing the
paper."

"Haven't you done that yet?"

"I simply haven't had time."

"Then I'll make you a nice present of a very valuable suggestion. Give a
luncheon to your employees, and invite all the editors and reporters.
Make a little speech to them and tell them what you intend to do, and
get them to talk it over and express opinions. That's the way to get
things done. I do it with my mission class. And, by the way, don't make
it a grand banquet at one of the big hotels. Have it in some place where
the men are used to eating. They'll feel more at home and you'll get
more out of them."

"Will you come?"

"No. But you shall come up to the house and report fully on it."

Had Miss Esme Elliot, experimentalist in human motives, foreseen to what
purpose her ingenious suggestion was to work out, she might well have
retracted her complaint of lack of real influence; for this casual
conversation was the genesis of the Talk-it-Over Breakfast, an
institution which potently affected the future of the "Clarion" and its
young owner.

CHAPTER XI

THE INITIATE

Within a month after Hal's acquisition of the "Clarion," Dr. Surtaine
had become a daily caller at the office. "Just to talk things over," was
his explanation of these incursions, which Hal always welcomed, no
matter how busy he might be. Advice was generally the form which the
visitor's talk took; sometimes warning; not infrequently suggesti