nd the old
look which had commanded the respect and obedience of men returned to his
eye.

"You mean my son?" he demanded.

"Yes," said Mr. Flint; "they tell me that when the time comes, your, son
will be a candidate on a platform opposed to our interests."

"Then," said Hilary, "they tell you a damned lie."

Hilary Vane had not sworn for a quarter of a century, and yet it is to be
doubted if he ever spoke more nobly. He put his hands on the arms of his
chair and lifted himself to his feet, where he stood for a moment, a tell
figure to be remembered. Mr. Flint remembered it for many years. Hilary
Vane's long coat was open, and seemed in itself to express this strange
and new-found vigour in its flowing lines; his head was thrown back, and
a look on his face which Mr. Flint had never seen there. He drew from an
inner pocket a long envelope, and his hand trembled, though with seeming
eagerness, as he held it out to Mr. Flint.

"Here!" he said.

"What's this?" asked Mr. Flint. He evinced no desire to take it, but
Hilary pressed it on him.

"My resignation as counsel for your road."

The president of the Northeastern, bewildered by this sudden
transformation, stared at the envelope.

"What? Now--to-day?" he said.

"No," answered Hilary; "read it. You'll see it takes effect the day after
the State convention. I'm not much use any more you've done your best to
bring that home to me, and you'll need a new man to do--the kind of work
I've been doing for you for twenty-five years. But you can't get a new
man in a day, and I said I'd stay with you, and I keep my word. I'll go
to the convention; I'll do my best for you, as I always have. But I don't
like it, and after that I'm through. After that I become a
lawyer--lawyer, do you understand?"

"A lawyer?" Mr. Flint repeated.

"Yes, a lawyer. Ever since last June, when I came up here, I've realized
what I was. A Brush Bascom, with a better education and more brains, but
a Brush Bascom--with the brains prostituted. While things were going
along smoothly I didn't know--you never attempted to talk to me this way
before. Do you remember how you took hold of me that day, and begged me
to stay? I do, and I stayed. Why? Because I was a friend of yours.
Association with you for twenty-five years had got under my skin, and I
thought it had got under yours." Hilary let his hand fall. "To-day you've
given me a notion of what friendship is. You've given me a chance to
estimate