Lewis, gave his card to a young woman who glanced
at him once and thereafter looked anywhere but at him while he spoke.
After a minute of waiting he was ushered into a private office. As he
neared this door, Hollister happened to catch a panoramic glimpse in a
wall mirror. The eyes of half a dozen clerks and other persons in that
room, both male and female, were fixed on him with the shocked and
eager curiosity he had once observed upon the faces of a crowd
gathered about the mangled victim of a street accident.
Mr. Lewis was a robust man, a few years older than Hollister. The
cares of a rapidly developing business and certain domestic ties had
prevented Mr. Lewis from offering himself upon the altar of his
country. The responsibility of eight per cent. investments entrusted
to his care was not easily shaken off. Business, of course, was a
national necessity. However, since the armistice, Mr. Lewis had ceased
to be either explanatory or inferentially apologetic--even in his own
thought--for his inability to free himself from the demands of
commerce during a critical period.
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