had been summoned from Washington. Of course I saw him
frequently, having from time to time to go to Washington on various
errands connected with legislation. Though spruce and debonnair as ever,
in the black morning coat he invariably wore, he appeared older than he
had on the day when I had entered his office. He greeted me warmly, as
always.

"Hugh, I'm glad to see you here," he said, with a slight emphasis on the
last word. My legal career was reaching its logical climax, the climax
he had foreseen. And he added, to the banker, that he had brought me up.

"Then he was trained in a good school," remarked that personage,
affably.

Mr. Barbour, the president of our Railroad, was present, and nodded to
me kindly; also a president of a smaller road. In addition, there were
two New York attorneys of great prominence, whom I had met. The banker's
own special lieutenant of the law, Mr. Clement T. Grolier, for whom I
looked, was absent; but it was forthwith explained that he was offering,
that morning, a resolution of some importance in the Convention of his
Church, but that he would be present after lunch.

"I have asked you to come here, Mr. Paret," said the banker, "not only
because I know something personally of your legal ability, but because
I have been told by Mr. Scherer and Mr. Barbour that you happen to have
considerable knowledge of the situation we are discussing, as well as
some experience with cases involving that statute somewhat hazy to lay
minds, the Sherman anti-trust law."

A smile went around the table. Mr. Watling winked at me; I nodded, but
said nothing. The banker was not a man to listen to superfluous words.
The keynote of his character was despatch....

The subject of the conference, like many questions bitterly debated and
fought over in their time, has in the year I write these words come to
be of merely academic interest. Indeed, the very situation we discussed
that day has been cited in some of our modern text-books as a classic
consequence of that archaic school of economics to which the name of
Manchester is attached. Some half dozen or so of the railroads running
through the anthracite coal region had pooled their interests,--an
extremely profitable proceeding. The public paid. We deemed it quite
logical that the public should pay--having been created largely for
that purpose; and very naturally we resented the fact that the meddling
Person who had got into the White House without asking