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Are you kidding? I think that she's much more influential than Wally. I think that Lila Wallace is a formidable woman, a real power. When she wants something, she damned well gets it.

Now the Digest people have always been wonderful to me. When we took our trip last year to the Orient...

Did you go to see some of their branches?

Well, I had turned down an invitation to go to Tokyo with Wally for the opening of the Readers Digest plant there. I couldn't get away. It was all on the cuff to Japan and back. I hated to pass that up.

When we went, Ralph Henderson had arranged for the Tokyo Digest head to entertain us. Then we went to Hong Kong; and there a very attractive couple representing the Digest, the Thompsons--that's quite a story in itself because...

She's his niece.

She always had been Lila's favorite niece. Her husband was looked upon as the heir apparent. Something went very, very wrong. What it was I never found out, but suddenly they were banished to Hong Kong. It's a big job, but it isn't running the Digest.

When we got to Thailand, a wonderful girl named