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be quite a windfall for him." "Yes, it will. Ill look him up. Thank you for the suggestion, Fulkerson." "Oh, dont mention it! I dont mind doing Every Other Week a good turn now and then when it comes in my way." Fulkerson went out again, and this time March was finally left with Mr. Dryfoos. "Mrs. March was very sorry not to be at home when your sisters called the other day. She wished me to ask if they had any afternoon in particular. There was none on your mothers card." "No, sir," said the young man, with a flush of embarrassment that seemed habitual with him. "She has no day. Shes at home almost every day. She hardly ever goes out." "Might we come some evening?" March asked. "We should be very glad to do that, if she would excuse the informality. Then I could come with Mrs. March." "Mother isnt very formal," said the young man. "She would be very glad to see you." "Then well come some night this week, if you will let us. When do you expect your father back?" "Not much before Christmas. Hes trying to settle up some things at Moffitt." "And what do you think of our art editor?" asked March, with a smile, for the change of subject. "Oh, I dont know much about such things," said the young man, with another of his embarrassed flushes. "Mr. Fulkerson seems to feel sure that he is the one for us." "Mr. Fulkerson seemed to think that I was the one for you, too," said March; and he laughed. "Thats what makes me doubt his infallibility. But he couldnt do worse with Mr. Beaton." Mr. Dryfoos reddened and looked down, as if unable or unwilling to cope with the difficulty of making a polite protest against Marchs self-depreciation. He said, after a moment: "Its new business to all of us except Mr. Fulkerson. But I think it will succeed. I think we can do some good in it." March asked rather absently, "Some good?" Then he added: "Oh yes; I think we can. What do you mean by good? Improve the public taste? Elevate the standard of literature? Give young authors and artists a chance?" This was the only good that had ever been in Marchs mind, except the good that was to come in a material way from his success, to himself and to his family. "I dont know," said the young man; and he looked down in a shamefaced fashion. He lifted his head and looked into Marchs face. "I suppose I was thinking that some time we might help along. If we were to have those sketches of yours about life in every part of New York--" Marchs authorial vanity was tickled. "Fulkerson has been talking to you about them? He seemed to think they would be a card. He believes that theres no subject so fascinating to the general average of people throughout the country as life in New York City; and he liked my notion of doing these things." March hoped that Dryfoos would answer that Fulkerson was perfectly enthusiastic about his notion; but he did not need this stimulus, and, at any rate, he went on without it. "The fact is, its something that struck my fancy the moment I came here; I found myself intensely interested in the place, and I began to make notes, consciously and unconsciously, at once. Yes, I believe I can get something quite attractive out of it. I dont in the least know what it will be yet, except that it will be very desultory; and I couldnt at all say when I can get at it. If we postpone the first number till February I might get a little paper into that. Yes, I think it might be a good thing for us," March said, with modest self-appreciation. "If you can make the comfortable people understand how the uncomfortable people live, it will be a very good thing, Mr. March. Sometimes it seems to me that the only trouble is that we dont know one another well enough; and that the first thing is to do this." The young fellow spoke with the seriousness in which the beauty of his face resided. Whenever he laughed his face looked weak, even silly. It seemed to be a sense of this that made him hang his head or turn it away at such times. "Thats true," said March, from the surface only. "And then, those phases of low life are immensely picturesque. Of course, we must try to

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