"And that's modern journalism!"

"It's the newspaper business," cried Sterne. "No different from any
other business."

"No wonder decent people consider newspaper men the scum of the earth,"
said Hal, with rather ineffectual generalization.

"Don't be young!" besought McGuire Ellis wearily. "Pretend you're a
grown-up man, anyway. You look as if you might have some sense about you
somewhere, if you'd only give it a chance to filter through."

Some not unpleasant quirk of speech and manner in the man worked upon
Hal's humor.

"Why, I believe you're right about the youngness," he admitted, with a
smile. "Perhaps there are other ways of getting at this thing. Just for
a test,--for the last time will you or will you not, Mr. Sterne, publish
this apology?"

"We will not. There's just one person can give me orders."

"Who is that?"

"The owner."

"I think you'll be sorry."

McGuire Ellis turned upon him a look that was a silent reproach to