“Venable?” George repeated. “Did you say Venable?” “Yes; the baritone. He’s still just in his prime; at least so his agent says. Have you ever heard him?” “Long ago,” the other returned. “I——” He stopped abruptly. “Did you know him?” Martha asked. “No. That is, I had a short interview with him once, but—no, I shouldn’t say I know him.” He rose, in courtesy to the departing Harlan, and extended his hand. “You mustn’t wait behind the next corner and leap out on me with a bowie-knife, Oliphant,” he said. “I didn’t mean to be such a disagreeable arguer.” “Not at all,” Harlan returned, somewhat coldly, though he added an effect of geniality to his departure by a murmur of laughter, and got away without any further emphasis upon his disappointment at finding his rival in possession. The latter gentleman, however, made little use of the field left open to him. Not long after Harlan had gone Martha noticed that her remaining guest seemed to be rather absent-minded, and she rallied him upon it. “I’m afraid you thrive upon conflict, Mr. McMillan.” “Why?” “Peace doesn’t seem to stimulate you—or else _I_ don’t! You’ve hardly spoken since Mr. Oliphant left. I’m afraid you’re——” “You’re afraid I’m what?” he said, as she paused; and although the dusk had fallen now, it was not too dark for her to see that his preoccupation was serious. “Are you troubled about anything?” she asked. “No. Why?” “I thought you looked——” “Oh, no,” he said. “It’s nothing. Perhaps I am a little bothered,” he admitted. “But it’s only about business.” “Not about the ‘Ornaby Four?’” she said, surprised. “I thought it was established as a tremendous success.” “Oh, it is,” he assured her promptly. “It is. It’s an extraordinary little car and nothing can stop it—except temporarily. It’s bound to climb over any little temporary difficulties. We may have made mistakes, but they won’t amount to anything in the long run.” “You say you _have_ made mistakes?” “Not until this year, and even then nothing we can’t remedy. You see Dan’s a great fellow for believing in almost anything that’s new, and an inventor came along last summer with a new type of friction clutch; and we put it in our car. Then I’m afraid we built a fairly enormous number of ‘Fours’ during the winter, but you see we were justified in that, because we knew there’d be a demand for them.” “And there wasn’t?” “Oh, yes; there was. But——” he paused; then went on: “Well, the people haven’t seemed to like the new clutch, and that gives us rather a black eye for the time being. Of course we’re going to do our best to straighten things out; we’ll put our old clutch back on all the new cars, but——” He paused uncomfortably again, and she inquired: “But won’t that make everything all right again?”