VI
OF "GENTLEMEN"
When I got back to my office and was settling I to the proofs of the
"Letter to Investors," which I published in sixty newspapers throughout the
country and which daily reached upward of five million people, Sam Ellersly
came in. His manner was certainly different from what it had ever been
before; a difference so subtle that I couldn't describe it more nearly than
to say it made me feel as if he had not until then been treating me as of
the same class with himself. I smiled to myself and made an entry in my
mental ledger to the credit of Mowbray Langdon.
"That club business is going nicely," said Sam. "Langdon is enthusiastic,
and I find you've got good friends on the committee."
I knew that well enough. Hadn't I been carrying them on my books at a good
round loss for two years?
"If it wasn't for--for some features of this business of yours," he went
on, "I'd say there wouldn't be the slightest trouble."
"Bucket-shop?" said I with an easy laugh, though this nagging was beginning
to get on my nerves.
"Exactly," said he. "And, you know, you advertise yourself like--like--"
"Like everybody else, only more successfully than most," said I.
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