He had been denied the advantage which a public school would have brought to him and had gone to college surrounded by sycophants and poseurs as blatant as himself, and never once had the cold breath of criticism been directed at him, except in what he was wont to describe as the "reptile Press." He licked his dry lips, and, walking to his desk, pressed a bell.

After a short wait--for he had purposely sent his secretary away--a girl came in.
"Has Mr.Tarling come ?" he asked.
"Yes, sir, he's in the board-room.

He has been waiting a quarter of an hour." He nodded.
"Thank you," he said.
"Shall I tell him----" "I will go to him myself," said Lyne.
He took a cigarette out of his gold case, struck a match and lit it.

His nerves were shaken, his hands were trembling, but the storm in his heart was soothing down under the influence of this great thought.

Tarling! What an inspiration! Tarling, with his reputation for ingenuity, his almost sublime uncanny cleverness.