Thornton Lyne might in different circumstances have drifted upward to sets even more misunderstood--yea, even to a set superior to marriage and soap and clean shirts and fresh air--only his father died of a surfeit, and Thornton became the Lyne of Lyne's Serve First.
His first inclination was to sell the property and retire to a villa in Florence or Capri.

Then the absurdity, the rich humour of an idea, struck him.

He, a scholar, a gentleman and a misunderstood poet, sitting in the office of a store, appealed to him.

Somebody remarked in his hearing that the idea was "rich." He saw himself in "character" and the part appealed to him.

To everybody's surprise he took up his father's work, which meant that he signed cheques, collected profits and left the management to the Soults and the Neys whom old Napoleon Lyne had relied upon in the foundation of his empire.
Thornton wrote an address to his 3,000 employees--which address was printed on decided antique paper in queerly ornate type with wide margins.