Upon the understanding that I was to receive no commission, I agreed, first ascertaining that it was really a most valuable franchise.
I began with the Willards, in whose hotel I had grown up.

They were rich and going out of business.

Then I laid it before Hitchcock and Darling, of the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York.

They, rich like the Willards, were also retiring.

Then a bright thought occurred to me.