While he looked at her all that was clear. He wove a very close web. But he was too adroit to draw the mesh too tight. He was careful not to embarrass her by an appeal to her sense of gratitude. “Of course, this is just a business proposition--a business arrangement.” The sudden release of tension was most welcome to Helen. “A quid pro quo, one might even say. We have been mutually useful to each other.” “You have been very good to me.” A sense of justice forced her to that simple admission. “If you really think so,”--he had a wonderful gift for taking instant advantage of every opportunity--“you’ll be in no hurry to turn us down.” Her distrust of this man had now grown profound, but with that implacable will enfolding her she began to seem a helpless fly in the toils of an enormous spider. “Take time for thought.” He recurred yet again to his theme with the zest of one who knows his own skill and loves its exercise. “The strongest and the wisest of us are liable to moments of weakness in which we may easily come to grief. I’m twice your age and that’s my excuse for prosing. But don’t throw away the substance for the shadow; don’t go back on your whole life for the sake of a heroic gesture. The control of the _Woman’s News_, with a combined minimum sale here and in the United States of five million copies a week, is going to be the prize of your profession. Try to realize what such a chance means before you sacrifice it to a chimera.” “John Endor is no chimera,” Helen mustered the wit to reply. “He is a great man. You know that as well as I do.” Again he looked at her in the way that had the power of disconcerting everybody. “A great man _ab ovo_ shall we say? But I’m going to be brutally frank.” A brief pause was well timed. “He can’t stay the course; he’s geared too high.” “How is it possible to know that?” said Helen valiantly. The Colossus laughed. Slowly his eyes unhooded themselves. She felt them strike like the fangs of a cobra. “Dear fellow!” A curious lisp entered that remote voice. “Dear fellow, he’s down and out already.” For one vital instant Helen’s heart seemed to miss its beat. The will must not accept this ukase, but an all-powerful instinct might dethrone it. Not for nothing had this man earned his name. Caught and pinned by his eyes she read what was behind them. Even to the acute, balanced brain of Helen at this moment he began to seem one with destiny itself. Shivering with an emotion very close to terror she was unable to move until his eyes let her go. Then she got up from her chair. “Take a few days before you really decide.” Quite suddenly his voice changed altogether. “If you are writing, give my love to the old people in the old home.” No other man would have dared that touch of audacity, of jejune cynicism. Helen knew that well enough, yet it didn’t make her fear of him less.