There are several ways in which men can be homely, and Radbourne, of Radbourne & Company, had chosen the worst way of all. When you saw him you wanted to smile. He was little and roly-poly. His eyes were too small, their blue too light. His nose was acutely and ungracefully pug. His ears were too big and stood out from his head. His mouth was too wide. His hair and eyebrows were thick and red, too red, and his round chubby face was flanked by a pair of silky, luxuriant red Dundrearies that would have done credit to a day of hirsute achievements. His linen was strictly without blemish, and he wore a creaseless black frock coat and a waistcoat of brown broadcloth. And as he stood looking up at his tall visitors, head on one side, he reminded them of nothing so much as a sleek cock-robin who had just dined to his taste. He seemed to be in his late thirties.
David would have smiled at any other time. "Why, this," he thought unkindly, "is a mere comic valentine."
The comic valentine smiled, a little shyly it seemed, and put out a slender long-fingered hand.
"This," he announced, "is a great pleasure."
David took the hand and murmured something polite.
Blaisdell chatted briskly for a few minutes, then departed. Radbourne turned to his draftsman-to-be.
"Perhaps Mr. Blaisdell has told you we are needing a man here. Do you think, now you've had a look at us, you would care to come and help us?"
"That's a pleasant way of putting it," said David a bit grimly. "I'm needing a job badly. If you think you aren't afraid to try me--"
Radbourne smiled protestingly. "If you knew all Mr. Blaisdell has said of you, you wouldn't say that. You have warm friends, Mr. Quentin, if he is a sample."
"Did he tell you I've failed in the only thing I ever tried?"
"He didn't put it that way," the little man said gently. "Nor would I, if I were you. There's such a thing as getting into the wrong niche--which isn't failure at all. Shall we consider it settled that you will come?"
"I'd like to be sure," David said, flushing, "that this job isn't one of your--charities."
The little man flushed, too. "Oh, I _beg_ of you not to think that. I expect you to prove it a good stroke of business for me. And I hope we shall please each other. Your first name is David, isn't it?"