H. R. called, shortly after ten o'clock the next morning, at the Ketcham
National Bank to discuss with his father-in-law-to-be interest rates on
the balance he did not yet have.
Mr. Goodchild had slept over the matter. He had spent an hour in going
over his annoyances and humiliations, and had failed himself with a
wrath that became murderous anger when he compelled himself to realize
that H. R. had it in his power to intensify the troubles of the
Goodchild family. The marriage of H. R. with his daughter became worse
than preposterous; it was a species of blackmail against which there was
no defense. He could not reach H. R. by means of the law or by speech or
by violence.
When his anger cooled, however, he saw that what he had done was to pay
the young man the greatest compliment an elderly millionaire can pay
anybody. The more formidable your enemy is, the less disgraceful is your
defeat. Mr. Goodchild was as intelligent a man as one is apt to find in
the office of the president of a bank; but he was susceptible, as all
men are, to self-inflicted flattery. He therefore decided that H. R. was
a problem to be tackled in cold blood, with both eyes open and prayer in
the heart. The only plan of action he could think of was proposing to
H. R. to accomplish an impossibility; in fact, two impossibilities. He
also would treat H. R. amicably.
"Good morning, young man!" he said, pleasantly.
"Morning!" said H. R., briskly. "Now let's get down to cases. I expect
you to--"
"Hold on!" said Mr. Goodchild, coldly, in order to keep from saying it
hotly. "Aren't you a trifle premature?"
"No," said H. R. "I find I can give you a few minutes to-day."
"You'll have to use some of those minutes in listening to me," said Mr.
Goodchild, trying to look as though this was routine business.
"I'll listen," H. R. assured him, kindly.
"You will admit that you have given me cause to--well, not to feel
especially friendly toward you."
"Big men are above petty feelings," said H. R. "You will, in turn, admit
that you made a mistake in not advancing me in the bank-- Wait! I'll
listen later, as long as you wish. You object, I suppose, to my methods;
but let me point out to you that I have arrived! Where should I be if I
hadn't been talked about? And where shall I land if I keep on
hypnotizing the newspapers into giving me columns of space? You know
what publicity means in business to-day, don't you? Well, just bear in
mind that I not only make news, but, by jingo, I am news! There is only
one other man in the United States who can say that, and you may have to
vote for him for President, notwithstanding your fear of him. Wait!"
H. R. held up his hand, took out his watch, and went on: "For an entire
minute think of what I have said before you answer. Don't answer until
the time is up. One minute. Begin! Now!"
H. R. held his hand detainingly two inches in front of Mr. Goodchild's
lips. Mr. Goodchild did not open them. He thought and thought, and he
became conscious that he had to argue with himself to find said answer.
"Speak!" commanded H. R. when the minute was up.
"The cases are not analogous. Publicity has its uses and--"
"It has this one use--that you can always capitalize it. It spells
dollars--and, more than that, easy dollars, untainted dollars, dollars
that nobody begrudges you and that nobody wants to take away from
you--not even the Administration at Washington. Think over that for two
minutes. And he pulled out his watch once more.
"Look here, I--"
"Damn it, don't talk! Think!" said H. R. so determinedly that Mr.
Goodchild almost feared a scene would be enacted which he should regret
after seeing it in the newspapers. "You have wasted forty seconds in
overcoming your anger at my manner of speech," continued H. R.,
reprovingly. "Begin all over. Two minutes. Now!" And before Mr.
Goodchild's wrath could become articulate he rose and walked over to a
window.
H. R. stared across the street. It was there he had captured Fleming.
How far away that day seemed now--and how far below! The two minutes
were up. He turned to Mr. Goodchild.
"Look here; you bank presidents are an unscientific lot. You ought to be
psychologists instead of being merely bookkeepers. It is knowledge of
people you need--not of human nature at its worst, or of political
economy, or of finance, but of people--the people who vote; the people
who in the end say whether you are to be allowed to enjoy your money and
theirs in comfort or not. Study them! You sit here and disapprove of my
methods because they violate some rule established years ago by somebody
as radical then as I appear to be now. It is not a question of good
taste or bad taste. It was good taste once to kill each other in duels,
and to drink two bottles of port, and to employ children in factories.
The suffragettes are attacked for methods--"
"Do you mean to say you approve of their slashing pictures--"
"That is beside the question. If the suffragettes stuck to ladylike
speeches and circulars they would be merely a joke at the club. The
right of women to vote is a problem. Well, the suffragettes have made
themselves exactly that--a problem! If they have not a sense of relative
values it is because they don't get me to run their campaign for them. I
could succeed without destroying one masterpiece. Maybe I will--some
day. And then I could marry ten bankers' daughters if I were not in love
with one. Let's come back to our own business. Do you think I have
brains?"
"Well--"
"No, no! Remember what I have said to you and consider whether it is
asinine; and think of what I have done and ponder whether it shows
hustling and executive ability, and those qualities that mean the power
to develop the individual bank account. Am I an ass or have I brains?"
"Yes; but--"
"All men of brains at all times have had more buts than bouquets thrown
at them. I tell you now that I have gone about this business for the
purpose of getting there. To become news, to be interesting to the
public in some way--in any way--is the quickest way. Then you can pick
your own way, a way that will commend itself to the well-bred
nonentities who never accomplish anything. Well, I am famous; and it's
up to me to decide what I shall do in the future to take advantage of
the fact that when people hear of H. R., or see those two initials in
print, they look for something interesting to follow. The least of my
troubles is that I shall become one of your respected depositors. I
don't drink; I am healthy--no taint of any kind, hereditary or acquired;
I don't have to lie to get what I want or cheat to get all the money I
need--and I need a lot. I've got ideas, and I don't fall down in
carrying them out, because I don't go on at half-cock. I never move
until I see my destination; and if there is a wall ahead I have my
scaling-ladder all ready long before I arrive at the wall."
H. R. paused, and then went on more slowly: "When you get over your
soreness at the raw deal the newspapers have given you, you will be glad
to have a man of brains in your house. I don't want you to give Grace
anything; but I tell you now I'm going to marry her, and you'd better
begin to be reconciled to the idea of having me for a son-in-law. I want
to be your friend, because I'm quite sure you will not enjoy having me
for your enemy--not after I begin the counter attack."
It is always the delivery that does it, as Demosthenes triply assured
posterity. Mr. Goodchild's eyes had not left H. R.'s face and he had
listened intently to the speech. He did not grasp in full all that H. R.
had said; but what really had emptied Mr. Goodchild of anger, and
filled him with an interest which was not very different from respect,
was the delivery. H. R.'s faculty of knowing how to speak to a
particular auditor was instinctive. It always is, with all such men,
whether they are famous or obscure, orators or life-insurance agents. It
is very simple when you are born with it.
Mr. Goodchild, however, finding his own weapons of offense more
dangerous to himself than to the foe, fell back on defense. To do so, he
naturally began with a lie. That is the worst of verbal defenses.
"I don't object to you personally. I--I even admit that I made a mistake
in not promoting you, though I don't know what position you could have
filled here that would have suited you--"
"None; because you don't realize that banks need modernizing. None! Skip
all that and get back to me as your son-in-law."
Mr. Goodchild, thinking of his two plans which were his one hope, asked,
abruptly:
"Are you a man of your word?"
"Since I have brains, I am. Are you?"
"I object to your methods. Your speech I might overlook, though it comes
hard. I am speaking plainly. Now you are known as the Sandwich Man. That
would bar you from my club and from ever becoming a really--"
"But that will stop. It will stop to-day. I have told Grace that within
a month nobody will ever connect my name with sandwiches."
"Will you agree not to marry or seek to marry my daughter, or annoy us
in any way--in short, if a month from now you are still famous as the
organizer of the sandwiches, will you stop trying to be my son-in-law?"
"Sure thing!" promised H. R., calmly. Mr. Goodchild was distrustful and
looked it, which made H. R. add, impressively: "I'll give you my word
that after to-day I'll never even try to see you or Grace, or write to
her, or revenge myself on you. So far as I am concerned I'll cease to
exist for you. And here's my hand on it."
He held out his hand in such a manner that Mr. Goodchild took it and
shook it with the warmth of profound relief. Then he said, heartfully:
"If you do that--"
"Don't worry! It won't kill my business. I'll be just as famous as
ever."
"The newspapers made you. Their silence will unmake you."
"Oh no!" And H. R. smiled as one smiles at a child.
Mr. Goodchild almost felt as though his head had been kindly patted.
"Why not?" he asked.
"Sandwiching is here to stay and--and my companies are organized. I'll
change the dummy directors as soon as you and I decide which of your
friends and clients shall be permitted to buy some of the stock my men
haven't sold. For cash, understand! The newspapers have done their work.
The newspapers in this instance are like incubators. I put in an egg.
The incubator hatched it. Then I took the chick out of the incubator.
Suppose the incubator now refuses to keep up the temperature of 102-1/2
degrees Fahrenheit necessary to hatch the egg? Suppose the incubator
gets stone cold? Well, let it! The chick is out and growing. And let me
tell you right now that I am not going to let Wall Street financiers get
their clutches on my chick. They'd caponize it. Talking about interest
rates--"
"How big a balance do you expect to keep with us?" asked Mr. Goodchild.
He did not like to admit the surrender.
"It depends on you." H. R. pulled out his watch, looked at the time,
snapped it shut, and said: "I haven't time to go over the business; but
I'll send one of my office men to tell you all you want to know. Listen
to him and then ask him any questions you wish. So far as you and I are
concerned we are beyond the sandwich stage. I'll send Barrett to you
this afternoon. And, believe me, you are going to be my father-in-law.
Good morning!" He left the office without offering to shake hands.
On his way out H. R. stopped to speak to Mr. Coster, to whom he owed so
much for having led him, as a clerk with the springtime in his blood, to
the president's office to be discharged.
"Well, old top, here I be!" said H. R., kindly humorous in order to
remove all restraint.
"How do you do, Mr. Rutgers?" said Coster, respectfully.
The clerks looked at their erstwhile fellow-slave furtively, afraid to
be caught looking. Was this Hendrik Rutgers? Was this what a man became
when he ceased to be a clerk?
Ah, but a salary! Something coming in regularly at the end of the week,
rain or shine! Gee! but some men are born lucky!