To those penniless celebrities to whom purchase of Mr. Early's commodities was over-expensive, there was another way out from under. They might visit Mr. Early's hospitable home, and so contribute their mite to the halo of distinction that surrounded him. The great ones came to St. Etienne. They ate and drank and were exhibited to an admiring throng. They gave lectures, introduced from the platform by Mr. Sebastian Early; they went away and _The Aspirant_ chronicled their satellite excellences. No such ex-guest need fear a blow in the face upon its pages. All these things came before the public--more and more before the public every year. They kept Mr. Early's growing corps of assistants busy, inventing new furniture and new forms of invective. It is needless to say that the hook-and-eye was never included in the illustrious list of Mr. Early's productions. That gentleman frequently blessed himself in private that his first commodity had been put upon the market as the "Imperial," and not as the "Bright and Early" as he had once half-resolved. Only a few knew who was responsible for the bill-boards. Still even his new enterprises paid. He was a good business man, and he shared with "the rabble" an appetite for cold cash. Nor did the crafty Arts exhaust either his abilities or his desires; for though he had no wish to pose before the world in the over-done rôle of a millionaire, still he needed money and ever more and more money. To get it he kept his hand in many a business enterprise and his eye on many a speculation of which the gaping world did not dream. Even his right-hand editorial writer knew not of his left-handed dip into an electric light company here or a paving contract there, for his left hand had assistants too,--quiet, unobtrusive, even shy,--men who could lobby a bill "on the quiet," or wreck an opposing company, even though they did not know the difference between Hafiz and chutney. And Mr. Early's mind was of such a broad catholicity that it would be hard to tell which side of his career he most enjoyed, the variety-show or the still-hunt. Thus it will be seen that this great man, who was a credit to the new art movement of our time, and of whom St. Etienne, a young western city, felt justly proud, was in his usual element when he introduced to the society, in which he was now a fixed star, a light from the Far East. And Swami Ram Juna seemed so sure that he himself was right and all the rest of the world was wrong, that Mr. Early felt him to be a kindred spirit.