Argosy All-Story Weekly, April 14, 1928 — page 14: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

152 On all sides of him he saw men suc- ceeding whose principles he knew to be elastic, while those who practiced ster- ling honesty seemed doomed to drudg- ery. Lester had considered honesty merely as a policy. While he would not steal or cheat, he felt that a business man had to make compromises with his conscience. * Dog eats Dog’”’ was the way he put it to himself. While he tried heartily to be a dog-eater himself, for some rea- son or other he didn’t like dog-meat. He had lasted with the Laguna De- velopment a little less than three months, and this was the tenth job he had held in six and a half years since graduating from Yale University. Lester could explain his failure to catch on to his own satisfaction, too. A fellow went to college as much to make valuable acquaintances as to study. If he got into the right society, roomed with the proper sort of class- mate, went around with the really im- portant crowd, he acquired a lot of friends who took care of him after graduation. He knew of half a dozen compara- tively poor men whose chums were the sons of captains of industry, and who had stepped into nice berths the day after they got their diplomas. Unfortunately Lester was the son of a widowed mother who was barely able to pay his tuition fees, and he was forced to support himself while at col- lege by waiting on table, shoveling snow, fixing furnaces, and tending gar- dens. . The business of earning his daily bread occupied all his time, and he had to pass up athletics where distinction awaited him, and in the end he had left college without friends of conse- ‘quence; just a few drudges like him- self. It had not soured his disposition; nothing could do that, but it explained to him why he had not got along. Bluff, cheerful fellows like Lester are rarely introspective, and he had ex- cused himself for not doing better to ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY. his own satisfaction until he had gone to work for old Davenport and made the acquaintance of Nora Meagher. There was a girl who appealed to Lester; pretty, witty, dainty, and de- lectable, Irish as the shamrock, fun- loving; a girl who ought to be a mar- velous playmate. The day he had en- tered the office Lester Lucus had assured himself that Nora was going to bring sunshine into his life, but for a reason unknown to him Nora had failed to respond to his line. Nora had a pretty wit, and a tongue which bit like an adder, and Lester’s armor of self-esteem was not long im- penetrable. He had always been able to amuse the girls in the various of- fices in which he sojourned, but Nora laughed at him, not with him. His jauntiness seemed to irritate her, his ebulliency exasperated her, and his assurance impressed her not at all. It was part of her job to take dictation from him, and her manner was not in the least respectful; efforts at dignity upon his part provoked giggles, and when he unbent and endeavored to es- tablish social relations she repulsed him almost rudely. Nora was a high school graduate, a very competent stenographer, and her age was twenty. She had never been kind to him until the moment when he found himself discharged ; and her will- ingness to see more of him, her frank gift of her home address, which she had hitherto refused to divulge, had touched him. He vowed he was going to see more of Nara even if he no long- er worked for old Davenport. Lester let himself into his room and threw himself into an overstuffed chair, hooking with his toe another chair, and drawing it close so that he might put his feet on it. “ I’ve wasted my time long enough,” he declared aloud. “ Now I’ve got to get into something and make real money.” : He regarded the other chair expect- antly, but it said nothing. COPNICLOOOKS (E@)