The article carried the implication that the modern, practical, American business man was the highest type as yet evolved by civilization:  and Ditmar, referred to as “a wizard of the textile industry,” was emphatically one who had earned the gratitude of the grand old Commonwealth.  By the efforts of such sons she continued to maintain her commanding position among her sister states.  Prominent among the qualities contributing to his success was open-mindedness, “a willingness to be shown,” to scrap machinery when his competitors still clung to older methods.  The Chippering Mill had never had a serious strike, —­indication of an ability to deal with labour; and Mr. Ditmar’s views on labour followed:  if his people had a grievance, let them come to him, and settle it between them.  No unions.  He had consistently refused to recognize them.  There was mention of the Bradlaugh order as being the largest commission ever given to a single mill, a reference to the excitement and speculation it had aroused in trade circles.  Claude Ditmar’s ability to put it through was unquestioned; one had only to look at him,—­tenacity, forcefulness, executiveness were written all over him....  In addition, the article contained much material of an autobiographical nature that must—­Janet thought—­have been supplied by Ditmar himself, whose modesty had evidently shrunk from the cruder self-eulogy of an interview.  But she recognized several characteristic phrases.

Caldwell, watching her as she read, was suddenly fascinated.  During a trip abroad, while still an undergraduate, he had once seen the face of an actress, a really good Parisian actress, light up in that way; and it had revealed to him, in a flash, the meaning of enthusiasm.  Now Janet became vivid for him.  There must be something unusual in a person whose feelings could be so intense, whose emotions rang so true.  He was not unsophisticated.  He had sometimes wondered why Ditmar had promoted her, though acknowledging her ability.  He admired Ditmar, but had no illusions about him.  Harvard, and birth in a social stratum where emphasis is superfluous, enabled him to smile at the reporter’s exuberance; and he was the more drawn toward her to see on Janet’s flushed face the hint of a smile as she looked up at him when she had finished.

“The Colonel hypnotized that reporter,” he said, as he took the paper; and her laugh, despite its little tremor, betrayed in her an unsuspected, humorous sense of proportion.  “Well, I’ll take off my hat to him,” Caldwell went on.  “He is a wonder, he’s got the mill right up to capacity in a week.  He’s agreed to deliver those goods to the Bradlaughs by the first of April, you know, and Holster, of the Clarendon, swears it can’t be done, he says Ditmar’s crazy.  Well, I stand to lose twenty-five dollars on him.”