“Is that so! Why, you talked as if you were an old hand at the business.”
“Did I? I am glad to hear it. I was afraid folks would take me for a greeny.”
“I didn’t take you for one, and I think I can read people pretty well. You evidently like the work.”
“I do, Mr. Begoin.”
“That is half the battle—to be in love with one’s occupation. A man can’t be a lawyer unless he likes it, and is cut out for it—and the same with a book agent. Is this your first sale?”
“No, sir,” and Frank related how he had fallen in with Joel Perkins and sold him the two volumes. The lawyer from Newark laughed heartily.
“You certainly took time by the forelock,” he said.
“I made a dollar and a half on that sale.”
“Good! And I presume you will make a little more on the books you have sold me.”
“The publisher allows me five dollars on each order in ordinary binding and seven dollars for an order in half-calf.”