As he walked quickly out of the big room Dick saw several new men, much such young reporters as he once was, nudge each other and look at him. He knew what that meant, for he had noticed it before. The youngsters were saying to one another, “See that fellow! that’s Richard Sumner, the man who’s been writing those letters from Mexico and the Southwest!” Once he had been looking at the older men in the same admiring way; but now that his own time had come it could not even make him smile. For who was to tell him when he did good work, and point out weaknesses in his style, or comfort him in trouble, or advise him, or do him a thousand little kindnesses, with Dr. Goode lying over in Greenwood? There was a warm welcome for him in the flat, and he did his best to conceal his grief over Dr. Goode behind his satisfaction at Darling’s promotion. That he could hardly realize any more than he could fully realize that he should see his good friend no more. “It’s too astonishing for a man to grasp so suddenly,” he said to his mother and Florrie after the first volley of hugs and kisses. “Darling is exactly the man for the place; exactly. But there were four or five people between him and the managing editorship. However, they do those things sometimes, as I have learned by experience.” “You’ll have to mind your p’s and q’s now, Mr. Richard Sumner,” Florrie laughed. “If you don’t do exactly as I want you to about everything, I’ll have Harry reduce your salary or put you back at city work. I’ll see that he keeps you busy.” “I don’t think he can keep me any busier than I always am,” Dick, retorted. “I’ve hardly had a minute to myself since I began work on the Transport. But I want to begin some work for myself now, and I’m remarkably glad that Darling is the man I’ll have to negotiate with.” There was time to do at least part of an article between the supper and the hour for Darling’s arrival, and Dick shut himself up and fell to work as naturally as if he had not been away. “Hello!” he exclaimed when he came to a short pause somewhere after midnight. “I’d forgotten that I was in New York. I’ve been so engrossed with writing about New Orleans and the levee and the Spanish fort and St. Charles Street, that I seemed to be down there among the Creoles.” He was always pleased when he found himself carried away with his subject in this way; so completely saturated with it that he became oblivious to his real surroundings. He liked to laugh with his funny characters, and sometimes to drop a stray tear with the unfortunate ones--when he was entirely alone. When Darling came in, a little later now than before, because he had to look over an early copy of the paper before leaving the office and sometimes make a second edition, Dick was ready to join him in the late supper. They had a long talk about Dr. Goode and everything that happened in the office.