All City Improvements
     Are Contemplated! 
     Map and Plans of
     Beautiful Siowitha Park
     Will probably be ready
     In the Near Future.

     Julius Neergard & Co. 
     Long Island Real Estate.”

Selwyn reddened with anger and beckoned to a clerk: 

“Is Mr. Neergard in his office?”

“Yes, sir, with Mr. Erroll.”

“Please say that I wish to see him.”

He went into his own office, pocketed his mail, and still wearing hat and gloves came out again just as Gerald was leaving Neergard’s office.

“Hello, Gerald!” he said pleasantly; “have you anything on for to-night?”

“Y-es,” said the hoy, embarrassed—­“but if there is anything I can do for you—­”

“Not unless you are free for the evening,” returned the other; “are you?”

“I’m awfully sorry—­”

“Oh, all right.  Let me know when you expect to be free—­telephone me at my rooms—­”

“I’ll let you know when I see you here to-morrow,” said the boy; but Selwyn shook his head:  “I’m not coming here to-morrow, Gerald”; and he walked leisurely into Neergard’s office and seated himself.

“So you have committed the firm to the Siowitha deal?” he inquired coolly.

Neergard looked up—­and then past him:  “No, not the firm.  You did not seem to be interested in the scheme, so I went on without you.  I’m swinging it for my personal account.”

“Is Mr. Erroll in it?”

“I said that it was a private matter,” replied Neergard, but his manner was affable.

“I thought so; it appears to me like a matter quite personal to you and characteristic of you, Mr. Neergard.  And that being established, I am now ready to dissolve whatever very loose ties have ever bound me in any association with this company and yourself.”

Neergard’s close-set black eyes shifted a point nearer to Selwyn’s; the sweat on his nose glistened.

“Why do you do this?” he asked slowly.  “Has anybody offended you?”

“Do you really wish to know?”

“Yes, I certainly do, Captain Selwyn.”

“Very well; it’s because I don’t like your business methods, I don’t like—­several other things that are happening in this office.  It’s purely a difference of views; and that is enough explanation, Mr. Neergard.”

“I think our views may very easily coincide—­”

“You are wrong; they could not.  I ought to have known that when I came back here.  And now I have only to thank you for receiving me, at my own request, for a six months’ trial, and to admit that I am not qualified to co-operate with this kind of a firm.”

“That,” said Neergard angrily, “amounts to an indictment of the firm.  If you express yourself in that manner outside, the firm will certainly resent it!”

“My personal taste will continue to govern my expressions, Mr. Neergard; and I believe will prevent any further business relations between us.  And, as we never had any other kind of relations, I have merely to arrange the details through an attorney.”