tell me your criticisms on the law as it stands, and what you suggest as
remedies."
Queed did so briefly, expertly. The Colonel was considerably impressed
by his swift, searching summaries.
"We may go right ahead," said he. "I wish you would block out a series
of articles--eight, ten, or twelve, as you think best--designed to
prepare the public mind for a thorough-going reform and point the way
that the reform should take. Bring this schedule to me to-morrow, if you
will be so good, and we will go over it together."
Queed, privately amused at the thought of Colonel Cowles's revising his
views on taxation, rose to go.
"By the bye," said the Colonel, unluckily struck by a thought, "I myself
wrote a preliminary article on tax reform a week or so ago, meaning to
follow it up with others later on. Perhaps you had best read that
before--"
"I have already read it."
"Ah! How did it strike you?"
"You ask me that?"
"Certainly," said Colonel Cowles, a little surprised.
"Well, since you ask me, I will say that I thought it rather amusing."
The Colonel looked nettled. He was by nature a choleric man, but in his
age he had learned the futility of disputation and affray, and nowadays
kept a tight rein upon himself.
"You are frank sir--'tis a commendable quality. Doubtless your work will
put my own poor efforts to the blush."
"I shall leave you to judge of that, Colonel Cowles."
The Colonel, abandoning his hospitable plan of inviting his new
assistant to sup with him at the club, bowed with dignity, and Queed
eagerly left him. Glancing at his watch in the elevator, the young man
figured that the interview, including going and coming, would stand him
in an hour's time, which was ten minutes more than he had allowed for
it.
V
_Selections from Contemporary Opinions of Mr. Queed; also
concerning Henry G. Surface, his Life and Deeds; of Fifi, the
Landlady's Daughter, and how she happened to look up Altruism in
the Dictionary_.
A month later, one icy afternoon, Charles Gardiner West ran into Colonel
|