is religion, and those who rebelled, who failed to conform, he
excommunicated; a code something like the map of Europe,--apparently
inconsistent in places. What I did not then comprehend was that he was
the American Principle personified, the supreme individual assertion of
the conviction that government should remain modestly in the background
while the efficient acquired the supremacy that was theirs by natural
right; nor had I grasped at that time the crowning achievement of a
unity that fused Christianity with those acquisitive dispositions said
to be inherent in humanity. In him the Lion and the Lamb, the Eagle and
the Dove dwelt together in amity and power.

New York, always a congenial place to gentlemen of vitality and means
and influential connections, had never appeared to me more sparkling,
more inspiring. Winter had relented, spring had not as yet begun. And
as I sat in a corner of the dining-room of my hotel looking out on the
sunlit avenue I was conscious of partaking of the vigour and confidence
of the well-dressed, clear-eyed people who walked or drove past my
window with the air of a conquering race. What else was there in the
world more worth having than this conquering sense? Religion might offer
charms to the weak. Yet here religion itself became sensible, and wore
the garb of prosperity. The stonework of the tall church on the corner
was all lace; and the very saints in their niches, who had known
martyrdom and poverty, seemed to have renounced these as foolish, and
to look down complacently on the procession of wealth and power..
Across the street, behind a sheet of glass, was a carrosserie where were
displayed the shining yellow and black panels of a closed automobile,
the cost of which would have built a farm-house and stocked a barn.

At eleven o'clock, the appointed hour, I was in Wall Street. Sending in
my name, I was speedily ushered into a room containing a table, around
which were several men; but my eyes were drawn at once to the figure of
the great banker who sat, massive and preponderant, at one end, smoking
a cigar, and listening in silence to the conversation I had interrupted.
He rose courteously and gave me his hand, and a glance that is
unforgettable.

"It is good of you to come, Mr. Paret," he said simply, as though
his summons had not been a command. "Perhaps you know some of these
gentlemen."

One of them was our United States Senator, Theodore Watling. He, as
it turned out,