He had only this one life to live; on this side Jordan, he still had, at most, some thirty years for seeing all the hills and headlands and bright rivers, and he must hasten about his business of seeing.

Perhaps he would yet walk up the Champs–Elysées.

He was in Sachem Falls a little after four. With no telephoning, he took a taxi to the Triumph agency. He cut short the greetings. He summoned Paul Popple, his aide.

‘Paul, I want you to stick around till you hear from me. It may be about six o’clock. It may not be till late evening. Now send me in Cal and Mac Tillery. When I get through with ’em, give ’em each a month’s salary and make sure, you personally, that they’re out of this place before six.’

Cal and Mac ranged in, looking slyly confident.

‘You boys are fired. You’re no good. You’ll get a month’s pay.’

‘Say, Cousin Freddie, I think you’re making a big mistake. Mac and me are always watching out for your interests. The mechanics you got out there are no good.’

‘For once, I’m not going to argue. I don’t want any long song and dance. Let’s admit you’re related to me. So is Judas Iscariot, if you carry it far enough. You two pose as the simple country boys that get done by the city slickers. Fact is, you’re wolves. They’re rustic, too! Your only idea of a job is that it’s a fight between you and the boss, and every minute you can loaf, every time you can duck a piece of work, is just one skirmish you’ve won. It’s never occurred to you there could ever be anything but hatred between you and the man you’ve consented to work for. You’re fired, and you might write this to your father: When he comes around to ask me, “You can’t let your own relatives starve, can you?” I’ll tell him, “With pleasure.” Now get out!’

They fled.

The grim little round man at the desk was saying within himself, ‘I don’t know how long I can keep up this hard-boiled attitude. I better work quick, while it lasts . . . Don’t it prove Dr. Janissary IS good? One hour with him, this morning, and I’m re-educated already.’

He telephoned to the house, then to a series of half a dozen other numbers, found Hazel at a hat shop, and demanded, ‘Be home in half an hour, could you? Something important I want to tell you’.

He telephoned to a tourist agency in Sachem and to one in Boston.

He telephoned to Lawyer Appletree.

When he left the office, he did not look back.

He took a taxicab home. In it, over and over, without quite knowing it, he repeated:

‘For to admire an’ for to see,

For to be’old this world so wide —

It never done no good to me,

But I can’t drop it if I tried.’

He became conscious of what he was quoting, and laughed at himself — not bitterly, now.