“My dear sir,” Murray had replied, “it is a straight business proposition, with no frills or twists of any kind. You have the facts and the figures. If you, with your business training, can’t see the merit of it, it would be a waste of time for me to attempt any elucidation. I have not the egotism to think I can _talk_ you into taking out a policy. As a matter of fact, this proposition doesn’t need any argument, and it would be a reflection on the plain merit of the proposition for me to attempt one.” Different methods for different men. This man never before had seen an insurance solicitor who would not talk for an hour, if he had the chance, and he was impressed and pleased. This was business,—straight business and nothing else. He straightway took out a large policy. Something of this Murray told the young man when he came back the next day, for he was anxious to impress upon him the fact that life insurance was not like a mining scheme, which has to be painted with all the glories of the sunset in order to float the stock, and that the man who overstated his case would inevitably suffer from the reaction. Murray had been favorably impressed with the young man—Max Mays was the name he gave—and the employer of Mays had spoken well of him. He was rather a peculiar fellow, according to the employer—always busy with figures or financial stories and seemingly deeply interested in the details of the large business affairs that were discussed in the newspapers and the magazines. Aside from this, he was about like the average clerk who hopes for and seeks better opportunities, and meanwhile makes the best of what he has—reasonably industrious and yet far from forsaking the pleasures of this life. All in all, Mays seemed like good material from which to make a life insurance man, and the fact that he did not propose to desert his present employer without notice was in his favor. Possibly the fact that he was getting his first commission through the latter had something to do with this, but, anyhow, he planned to continue where he was until a successor had been secured; and too many young men, contemplating such a change, would have let their enthusiasm lead them to quit without notice when they found the new place open to them. This is mentioned merely as one of the things that led Murray to think he had secured a thoroughly conscientious, as well as an ambitious, employee.