Failure after failure, his articles thrown away
or rewritten by the copyreaders, had prepared him for the blow. Yet it
crushed him for the moment. His voice was not steady as he replied:
"No doubt you are right. Thank you for taking the trouble to study my case
and tell me so soon."
"Don't hesitate to stay on for the two weeks," Mr. Bowring continued. "We
can make you useful to us. And you can look about to much better advantage
than if you were out of a place."
"I'll stay the two weeks," Howard said, "unless I find something sooner."
"Don't be more discouraged than you can help," said Mr. Bowring. "You may
be very grateful before long for finding out so early what many of us--I
myself, I fear--find out after years and--when it is too late."
Always that note of despair; always that pointing to the motto over the
door of the profession: "Abandon hope, ye who enter here." What was the
explanation? Were these men right? Was he wrong in thinking that journalism
offered the most splendid of careers--the development of the mind and the
character; the sharpening of all the faculties; the service of truth and
right and human betterment, in daily combat with injustice and error and
falsehood; the arousing and stimulating of the drowsy minds of the masses
of mankind?
Howard looked about at the men who held on where he was slipping.
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