“You offered,” said Helm.
“You hypnotized me,” retorted Desbrough. “Lord, what a pile of work!”
“Yes,” said Helm. “You’ll have to begin right away. I calculate to make twenty-five hundred dollars by the first of June. I want to build this thing up in a couple of years into a steady income of five to ten thousand—an income nobody can touch so long as people’ll come out to hear me.” The handsome blue-gray eyes looked anxiously from the homely face. “Bill, am I deceiving myself? Do you think they’ll pay to hear me?”
“You can’t expect ’em to pay much—at first.”
“I was thinking it’d be about right to ask ten dollars for the little places, and fifteen to thirty for the bigger ones.”
“I’ll have to feel that out,” said Bill. “Leave something for the manager to do.”
“Put the prices low, Bill,” said George. “It’s safer. Also, we want to reach all the people. And I’m going to write some lectures that’ll educate ’em in what’s going on under their noses. About these lectures—they’re to be a mixture of humorous and serious. I’ve got a lot of good stories I can work in. The first lecture’s pretty nearly ready.”
“What’s it about?”
“The American Home—as it was—as it is—as it should be.”
“Wit, wisdom and weeps?”