Helen looked up sharply.  “No harder than most men,” she answered, slipping easily from the traces of his cross-examination.

His rancor outran his reserve.  “I guess I’m vain,” he threw out bitterly, “but I’d like to feel that I could land one piece of business without anybody’s help.”

She laughed indulgently.  “Why, Freddie, that isn’t nice!  You landed Hilmer at the start...  Don’t you remember that very first line?  On his automobile?”

There was something insincere in her tone, in the lift of her eyes, in her cryptic smile.  But he smothered such unworthy promptings.  It was fresh proof of his own unreasonable conceit.  He turned away from his wife in silence, but he was sure that his face betrayed his feelings.

Presently he felt her standing very close to him.  He turned about sharply, almost in irritation.  Her mouth was raised temptingly.  He bent over and kissed her, but he withdrew as swiftly.  Her lips left a bitter taste that he could not define.

CHAPTER VI

March passed in a blur of wind and cold, penetrating rains.  Except for the placing of the insurance on the Hilmer shipbuilding plant, business was dull.  Fred began to make moves toward getting in money.  But it was heartbreaking work.  The people who had yielded up their consent so smilingly to Fred for personal accident policies, or automobile insurance, passed him furtively on the street or sent word out to him when he called at their offices that they were busy or broke or leaving town.  He did not attempt to do much toward collecting the fire-insurance premiums.  Most people with fire policies knew their rights and stood by them.  The premiums on March business were not due until the end of May and it was useless to make the rounds much before the middle of that month.

The whisperings on the street continued, and a few surly growls from Kendrick reached Fred’s ears.  One day a close friend of Fred, who knew something of Insurance Exchange matters, said to him: 

“There’s something going on inside, but I can’t quite get the dope...  I hope you’re not giving Kendrick the chance to have you called for rebating...  He’s an ugly customer when he gets in action.”

Fred was annoyed.  “I’ve told you again and again,” he retorted, “that I’m not yielding a cent on the Hilmer business.”

“It isn’t that,” was the reply.  “Kendrick knows better than to stir up a situation he’s helped to befoul himself...  No, it’s another matter.”

Fred shrugged and changed the subject, but his thoughts flew at once to Brauer.  He decided not to say anything to his partner until he made a move toward investigating, himself.