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<h2>LUCY THE LITERARY AGENT</h2> "I know you will agree with me," said Lucy, "that these stories by Perth Dewar are quite remarkable, quite the most distinctive things of the kind that have been done in years, and that your readers will like them immensely." Ethridge the Editor said nothing. It was unwise to contradict her; for of all the personal-touch literary agents, Lucy was the personal-touchiest. So he let her run on and on, trusting that eventually she would run down.[Pg 172] Also she wasn't bad looking—in her aggressive way. "You've read them?" she queried suddenly. "Why, certainly," he lied, glancing with studied casualness at the Reader's Report slip attached to the blue manuscript cover. Ethridge never read anything he could possibly avoid reading. He was one of those successful editors who edit by belonging to the best clubs and attending the right teas. Mere perusal of manuscripts was not particularly in his line. The Report slip said: "Costume stories of Holland in the 17th Century. Only moderately well done. Not suitable for this magazine." "Who is this Dewar person, anyhow?" asked Ethridge defensively. "You mean to say you haven't heard of him? Why, my dear Mr. Ethridge! Dewar is a man of independent means—lives on his estate down in Maryland and writes stories between fox hunts. Enormously gifted." She failed to add, however, that Dewar had offered to let her keep any money she received for the stories—provided she could get them printed. [Pg 173] Resting her white elbows on Ethridge's desk and eyeing him with calculating coyness, Lucy knew that he had not read the stories. She would make him wonder if she knew he hadn't. "What do you yourself honestly think of them, Mr. Ethridge? Candidly, now. You're always so delightfully frank with me, Mr. Ethridge. That's why it's such a pleasure to deal with you. How did they strike you?" "Really, Miss Leech, I don't see how in our magazine we could possibly—" "Now, Mr. Ethridge!" She held up a reproving finger, laughing roguishly. "But what's the use of our trying to discuss imaginative literature here in your busy office with the telephone ringing every moment—or threatening to ring—and your discouragingly pretty blonde secretary—the minx!—popping in continually to see if we're behaving!" Ethridge smiled complacently. Why be an ogre? "I tell you what. Let's have supper at my studio this evening," continued Lucy. "It'll be so much more satisfactory to discuss things sensibly, without interruption." So he did, and they did. [Pg 174] At breakfast it was finally decided that the series by Perth Dewar should consist of ten stories, including four still to be written. Ethridge salved his conscience by resolving secretly that they should all be published in the back of the book. In due course of time the first story appeared. It contained a mean reference to the Knights of Pythias, or Mormonism, or a former Vice-President of the United States, or something; for which reason the issue containing it was suppressed. Whereupon the buried issue became a Living Issue. The intelligentsia rushed to the rescue with highbrow hue and cry. Round robins were circulated. Newspaper columnists got sarcastic. Liberal cliques chittered. Perth Dewar became suddenly significant. The issue containing the second story was sold out the day it appeared. By the time the third one was out, Professor Lion Whelps, of Yale, proved in an article in the Sunday Times, that Dewar's attitude toward women was like Turgeniev's, and Professor Brando Methuseleh, of Columbia, discovered he had cadences. Sinclair Lewis[Pg 175] inserted a mention of him in the forty-ninth edition of "Babbitt". Nine British novelists hurried over to lecture on him. And Ethridge? He was made. In acknowledgement of his peerless editorial acumen that could discern true genius at a glance, the directors of the magazine doubled his salary and gave him a bonus to keep him from being coaxed away by the "Saturday Evening Pictorial". And Lucy? Ethridge married her to keep her quiet. <hr class="chap" /> [Pg 176] <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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