" Howard himself was surprised. He had
mentally insured against a long period of disappointment.
"This shows," he remarked to King and Vroom, "how much more competent men
are than we usually think--if they get a chance, if they are pointed in the
right direction and are left free."
"He certainly knows his business." Vroom was looking after Howard
admiringly. "I never saw anybody who so well understood when to lead and
when to let alone. What results he does get!"
"A pity to waste such talents on this thankless business," said King. "If
he'd gone into real business, he would have a salary of a hundred thousand
a year, would be rich and secure for life. Why, a business man could and
would make a whole career on the ideas he has in a single week. As it
is----"
King shrugged his shoulders and Vroom finished the sentence for him:
"Coulter and Stokely could kick him out to-morrow and the
_News-Record_ would go straight on living upon his ideas for ten years
at least."
Howard needed no one to make this truth clear to him to the full. Often, as
he thought of his expanding tastes, his expanding expenditures and his
expanding plans both for his private life and for his career, he felt an
awful sinking at the heart and a sense of fundamental weakness.
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