Severance raised his fine eyebrows, but contented himself with saying: “Isn’t it? However, I didn’t come. I was brought.” He indicated Edmonds.
“He gave me more ideas on news-dressing,” said the veteran, “than I’d pick up in a century on the Row.”
“Ideas are what we’re after. Where do you get yours, Mr. Severance, since you are not a practical newspaper man?”
“From talking with people, and seeing what the newspapers fail to do.”
“Where were you before you went on Guidance?”
“Instructor at Harvard.”
“And you practiced your—er—specified profession there, too?”
“Oh, no. I was partly respectable then.
“Why did you leave?”
“Drink.”