He nodded. 'That's so.' I was simply amazed at this magnificent prospect. 'The cycle trade must be honeycombed with middlemen's profits!' I cried; for I had my misgivings. 'That's so,' he replied again. 'Then jest you take and be a middlewoman.' 'But, as a consistent socialist----' 'It is your duty to fleece the capitalist and the consumer. A mutual benefit--triangular this time. I get the order, the public gets the machine, and you get the commission. I am richer, you are richer, and the public is mounted on much the best wheel ever yet invented.' 'That sounds plausible,' I admitted. 'I shall try it on in Switzerland. I shall run up steep hills whenever I see any likely customers looking on; then I shall stop and ask them the time, as if quite accidentally.' He rubbed his hands. 'You take to business like a young duck to the water,' he exclaimed, admiringly. 'That's the way to rake 'em in! You go up and say to them, "Why not investigate? We defy competition. Leave the drudgery of walking uphill beside your cycle! Progress is the order of the day. Use modern methods! This is the age of the telegraph, the telephone, _and_ the typewriter. You kin no longer afford to go on with an antiquated, ante-diluvian, armour-plated wheel. Invest in a Hill-Climber, the last and lightest product of evvolootion. _Is_ it common-sense to buy an old-style, unautomatic, single-geared, inconvertible ten-ton machine, when for the same money or less you can purchase the self-acting Manitou, a priceless gem, as light as a feather, with all the most recent additions and improvements? Be reasonable! Get the best!" That's the style to fetch 'em!' I laughed, in spite of myself. 'Oh, Mr. Hitchcock,' I burst out, 'that's not _my_ style at all. I shall say, simply "This is a lovely new bicycle. You can see for yourself how it climbs hills. Try it, if you wish. It skims like a swallow. And I get what they call five pounds commission on every one I can sell of them!" I think that way of dealing is much more likely to bring you in orders.' His admiration was undisguised. 'Well, I _do_ call you a woman of business, miss,' he cried. 'You see it at a glance. That's so. That's the right kind of thing to rope in the Europeans. Some originality about you. You take 'em on their own ground. You've got the draw on them, you hev. I like your system. You'll jest haul in the dollars!' 'I hope so,' I said, fervently; for I had evolved in my own mind, oh, such a _lovely_ scheme for Elsie Petheridge's holidays! He gazed at me once more. 'Ef only I could get hold of a woman of business like you to soar through life with me,' he murmured. [Illustration: HIS OPEN ADMIRATION WAS GETTING QUITE EMBARRASSING.] I grew interested in my shoes. His open admiration was getting quite embarrassing. He paused a minute. Then he went on: 'Well, what do you say to it?' 'To what?' I asked, amazed. 'To my proposition--my offer.'