SNELGROVE said to Dave toward the end of the next week: "Boy, somebody has sure made you one bear of a salesman! You slipped off form for a spell after your little trip out on the ice; but now! Zowie!" Snelgrove sorted over the sheaf of orders, with checks for deposits paid, which Dave brought in. "Somebody has sure spoken to you! And all I. E. Snelgrove hopes is 'Speak to him again, girl! Speak to him again!'"
This was Snelgrove's most direct reference to Dave's personal affairs. Business was booming, partly because of the coming of the warm days of spring with their call to the car and partly as a result of the new energy with which Dave worked. It amazed himself quite as much as it did Snelgrove. He felt that he could do anything; yes, for Fidelia, he could do anything.
He worried no more about the increase in price of the new Hamilton six; in so far as he worried at all now, it was as to whether the factory would make good on their promises of the car, and deliver on time.
To be sure, it bothered him at first not to have money of his own for his personal expenses; for he recognized that, when he drew money at the office, it either came from Mr. Fuller's loan or else was taken from the deposits paid on the orders for cars not yet
161
