great firm of
Beale & Storey, and while not in the partnership as yet, had worked up
to the position of an assistant. He had cases of his own now, a great
many of them, for the most part damage suits against that certain
enormous corporation whom it was said was ruining the city and entire
state. Geary posed as one of its bitterest enemies, pushing each suit
brought against it with a tireless energy, with a zeal that was almost
vindictive. He began to fit into his own niche, in the eyes of the
public, and just in proportion as the corporation was hated, Geary was
admired. Money came to him very fast. He was hardly thirty at this time,
but could already be called a rich man.

His "deal" with Vandover had given him a taste for real estate, and now
and then, with the greatest caution, he made a few discreet investments.
At present he had just completed a row of small cottages across the
street from the boot and shoe factory. The cottages held two rooms and a
large kitchen. Geary had calculated that the boot and shoe concern would
employ nearly a thousand operatives, and he had built his row with the
view of accommodating a few of them who had families and who desired to
live near the factory. His agents were Adams & Brunt.

It was toward half-past five, there was nothing more that Geary could do
that day, and for a moment he leaned back in his swivel chair, before
going home, smiling a little, very well pleased with himself. He was
still as clever and shrewd as ever, still devoured with an incarnate
ambition, still delighted when he could get the better of any one. He
was yet a young man; with the start he had secured for himself, and
with the exceptional faculties, the faculties of self-confidence and
"push" that he knew himself to possess, there was no telling to what
position he might attain. He knew that it was only a question of
time--of a short time even--when he would be the practical head of the
great firm. Everything he turned his hand to was a success. His row of
houses in the Mission might be enlarged to a veritable settlement for
every workman in the neighbourhood. His youth, his cleverness, and his
ambition, supported by his money on the one hand, and on the other by
the vast machinery of the great law firm, could raise him to a great
place in the world of men. Gazing through the little blue haze of his
cigar smoke, he began to have vague ideas, ideas of advancement, of
political successes. Politics fascinate