As for Miss E——­, the Wellesley-Bryn Mawr-Mt.  Holyoke assistant, who from the first had agreed with me that here indeed was a writer of promise, a genius really, he, as I have said, at first despised her.  Later, by dint of exulting in his force, sincerity of purpose, his keen insight and all but braggart strength, she managed, probably on account of her looks and physical graces, to install herself in his confidence and to convince him that she was not only an honest admirer of his skill but one who had taste and judgment of no mean caliber.  Thereafter he was about as agreeable as a semi-caged wild animal would be about any office.

But above all he was affronted by M——­, the publisher of the paper, concerning whom he could find no words equal to his contemptuous thoughts of him.  The publisher, as L——­ made quite bold to say to me, was little more than a “dodging, rat-like financial ferret,” a “financial stool-pigeon for some trust or other,” a “shrewd, material little shopkeeper.”  This because M——­ was accustomed to enter and force a conversation here and there, anxious of course to gather the full import of all these various energies and enthusiasms.  One of the things which L——­ most resented in him at the time was his air of supreme material well-being, his obvious attempt and wish not to convey it, his carefully-cut clothes, his car, his numerous assistants and secretaries following him here and there from various other organizations with which he was connected.

M——­’s idea, as he always said, was to spend and to live, only it wasn’t.  He merely induced others so to do.  One of his customs (and it must have impressed L——­ very much, innocent newcomer that he was) was to have one or another of his hirelings announce his passing from one “important” meeting to another, within or without his own building, telephone messages being “thrown in” on his line or barred out, wherever he happened to be at the moment and when, presumably, he was deep in one of those literary conferences or confidences with one employee or another or with a group, for which he rapidly developed a passion.  Another of his vanities was to have his automobile announced and he be almost forced into it by impetuous secretaries, who, because of orders previously given, insisted that he must be made to keep certain important engagements.  Or he would send for one of his hirelings, wherever he chanced to be—­club, restaurant, his home—­midnight if necessary, to confer with him on some subject of great moment, and the hireling was supposed to call a taxi and come post haste in order that he might not be kept waiting.

“God!” L——­ once remarked in my presence.  “To think that a thinking being has to be beholden to a thing like that for his weekly income!  Somebody ought to tap him with a feather-duster and kill him!”