Page:Christopher Morley--Tales from a rolltop desk.djvu/194

It touched them in a tender spot to know that there had been all that money lying round the office, unused, which was now to be squandered (as they put it) on charlatanry, when they felt that they might just as well have had some of it.

"The Old Man is always looking for some special stunt, and trying to discover someone on the outside," said one. "He can't see the material right under his nose."

"It's really rather pathetic: he's crazy to get out a great newspaper, but he hasn't the faintest idea how to do it."

"Yes, give him credit for sincerity. It isn't just circulation he wants."

"Circulation's easy enough, if that's what you're after. The three builders of circulation are Sordid, Sensational, and Sex—"

"And the greatest of these is Sex."

"Oh, he's decent enough. He won't pander."

"He panders to stupidity. He's fallen for this Memory bunk. And when he finds that's a flivver, he'll try something else, equally fatuous. He's making the old Lens ridiculous."

They smoked awhile, meditatively.

"What I would like to figure out," said Sanford, "is some way of making an impression on the Old Man. I've got to get more money. The trouble-