That afternoon Darius Clayhanger, with his most mysterious air of
business, told Edwin to follow him into the shop. Several hours of
miscellaneous consultative pottering had passed between Darius and his
compositors round and about the new printing machine, which was once
more plumb and ready for action. For considerably over a week Edwin had
been on his father's general staff without any definite task or
occupation having been assigned to him. His father had been too
excitedly preoccupied with the arrival and erection of the machine to
bestow due thought upon the activities proper to Edwin in the complex
dailiness of the business. Now he meant at any rate to begin to put the
boy into a suitable niche. The boy had deserved at least that.
At the desk he opened before him the daily and weekly newspaper-book,
and explained its system.
"Let's take the `British Mechanic,'" he said.
And he turned to the page where the title `British Mechanic' was written
in red ink. Underneath that title were written the names and addresses
of fifteen subscribers to the paper. To the right of the names were
thirteen columns, representing a quarter of the year. With his
customary laboriousness, Darius described the entire process of
distribution. The parcel of papers arrived and was counted, and the
name of a subscriber scribbled in an abbreviated form on each copy.
Some copies had to be delivered by the errand boy; these were handed to
the errand boy, and a tick made against each subscriber in the column
for the week: other copies were called for by the subscriber, and as
each of these was taken away, similarly a tick had to be made against
the name of its subscriber. Some copies were paid for in cash in the
shop, some were paid in cash to the office boy, some were paid for
monthly, some were paid for quarterly, and some, as Darius said grimly,
were never paid for at all. No matter what the method of paying, when a
copy was paid for, or thirteen copies were paid for, a crossing tick had
to be made in the book for each copy. Thus, for a single quarter of
"British Mechanic" nearly two hundred ticks and nearly two hundred
crossing ticks had to be made in the book, if the work was properly
done. However, it was never properly done--Miss Ingamells being short
of leisure and the errand boy utterly unreliable--and Darius wanted it
properly done. The total gross profit on a quarter of "British
Mechanics" was less than five shillings, and no customers were more
exigent and cantankerous than those who bought one pennyworth of goods
per week, and had them delivered free, and received three months'
credit. Still, that could not be helped. A printer and stationer was
compelled by usage to supply papers; and besides, paper subscribers
served a purpose as a nucleus of general business.
As with the "British Mechanics," so with seventeen other weeklies. The
daily papers were fewer, but the accountancy they caused was even more
elaborate. For monthly magazines there was a separate book with a
separate system; here the sums involved were vaster, ranging as high as
half a crown.
Darius led Edwin with patient minuteness through the whole labyrinth.
"Now," he said, "you're going to have sole charge of all this."
And he said it benevolently, in the conviction that he was awarding a
deserved recompense, with the mien of one who was giving dominion to a
faithful steward over ten cities.
"Just look into it carefully yerself, lad," he said at last, and left
Edwin with a mixed parcel of journals upon which to practise.
Before Edwin's eyes flickered hundreds of names, thousands of figures,
and tens of thousands of ticks. His heart protested; it protested with
loathing. The prospect stretching far in front of him made him feel
sick. But something weak and good-natured in him forced him to smile,
and to simulate a subdued ecstasy at receiving this overwhelming proof
of his father's confidence in him. As for Darius, Darius was delighted
with himself and with his son, and he felt that he was behaving as a
benignant father should. Edwin had proved his grit, proved that he had
that uncommunicable quality, `character,' and had well deserved
encouragement.
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