"
"What do they say?" he demanded.
"Your friends, that you never had any. And your enemies, that they are
always the latest," she informed him.
"You'll do," he answered with a laugh. "With nine men out of ten that
speech would have ended your chances. You sized me up at a glance, and
knew it would only interest me. And your instinct is right," he added.
"What people are saying: always go straight for that."
He gave her a commission then and there for a heart to heart talk with a
gentleman whom the editor of the Home News Department of the _Daily
Dispatch_ would have referred to as a "Leading Literary Luminary," and
who had just invented a new world in two volumes. She had asked him
childish questions and had listened with wide-open eyes while he, sitting
over against her, and smiling benevolently, had laid bare to her all the
seeming intricacies of creation, and had explained to her in simple
language the necessary alterations and improvements he was hoping to
bring about in human nature. He had the sensation that his hair must be
standing on end the next morning after having read in cold print what he
had said.
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