She laughed. "No, thank you! You can play with other people's money all you like. I want to ask about Food Products, that's all—what you're doing with it. And do sit down, Lawrence. You make me nervous, handling that cigar like a baton; besides, you cut off all the beauty of the fire."
"Cruel lady!" sighed Macgowan. "Can you not appreciate the magnificence of such a fire-screen? Well, I obey. Reese, tell the lady all about Food Products."
He sat down, gazing at the ceiling, and puffed reflectively at his cigar. He appeared to be rather thoughtful about something.
"Well, Dot?" inquired Armstrong. "What do you want to know?"
"Oh, everything in general! Is that stock issue on the market?"
"We start the campaign in a couple of weeks; one thing and another has held us up. Our investors will eat it up, too. Consolidated is going to do big things for them—"
"Food Products, please!" Dorothy stuck to her point. "Is the plant at work?"
"Full capacity; it has never ceased work. Within the next month or two the reorganization will begin to show big results. We're going to work with a real advertising campaign. If you could see the difference between our operating cost-sheet and that of the old organization, you'd realize what one trouble back there has been."
"With father's company?" asked Dorothy, a little doubtfully.
"Exactly. By the way, Dot, I wrote your father to-day asking him to reconsider his resignation and come back into the company. I think he's been out of the harness long enough to realize that he'll rust out unless he keeps busy. I hope he'll accept."