Starratt refused to be forewarned.  The people he went after were personal friends or gilt-edged business men. They wouldn’t deny their obligations when the premiums fell due.

But the greatest rallying point for his business enthusiasm proved to be Hilmer.  It seemed that scarcely a day went by that Hilmer did not drop a new piece of business Fred’s way.  Returning to the office at four o’clock on almost any afternoon, he grew to feel almost sure that he would find Hilmer there, bending over Helen’s shoulder as he pointed out some vital point in the contract they were both examining.  He was a trifle uneasy at first—­dreading the day when Hilmer would approach him on the matter of sharing commissions.  It was a generally assumed fact that Kendrick, the man who handled practically all of Hilmer’s business, was a notorious rebater—­that he divided commissions with his clients in the face of his sworn agreement with the Broker’s Exchange not to indulge in such a practice.  Obviously, then, Hilmer would not be a man to throw away chances to turn such an easy trick.

Starratt voiced these fears to Brauer.

“Sure he expects a rake-off,” Starratt’s silent partner had said.  “Everybody gets it ... if they’ve got business enough to make it worth while.”

“Well, he won’t get it from me,” Fred returned, decisively.  “I’ve signed my name to an agreement and that agreement will stick if I starve doing it!”

Brauer, disconcerted by his friend’s vehemence, merely had shrugged, but at another time he said, craftily: 

“If Hilmer wants to break even on the fire business he gives us, why can’t we make it up some other way?...  There’s nothing against giving him all the commissions on that automobile liability policy we placed the other day.  We can do what we please with that profit.”

Starratt flushed.  “Can’t you see, Brauer, that the principle is the same?”

“Principle!  Oh, shoot!...  We’re out to make money, not to reform business methods.”

Starratt made no further reply, but Brauer’s attitude rankled.  He began to wish that he hadn’t allowed Brauer to go in on his venture.  ’But it had taken money ... more than he had imagined.  They had to put a good deposit down on the office furniture, and the rent was, of course, payable in advance.  Then came the fee for joining the Broker’s Exchange, and he had to borrow money for his personal expenses in the face of his diminished salary check from Ford, Wetherbee & Co.  He realized, too, that the difficulties would scarcely decrease, even in the face of brisk business.  The office furnishings would one day have to be met in full, the typewriting machine paid for, the stationery and printing bills settled.  During all this time he and Helen would have to live and keep up a decent, not to say prosperous, appearance.  Yes, even with Helen saving the price of a stenographer, the problem would not be easy.  A day would come finally when he would feel compelled to provide Helen with a fair salary.  A man couldn’t expect even his own wife to go on pounding a typewriting machine for nothing.  What he really hoped was that when things began to run smoothly Helen would retire...  He had heard her in the old days voice her scorn of the married woman who went out to earn a salary.