ty.

They were both comparatively young men. The elder of the two, a big,
athletic fellow with smooth face and strong jaw, did not appear to be
much over thirty-five. His companion was about the same age. Both had
the _blase_ air of men who had lived and lived hard. All of
life's fiercer joys they had known to excess, which explained,
perhaps, why they were tired and disillusionized long before they had
attained their prime. With a gesture of disgust, the elder man threw
down his paper, and, snatching up a glass of ice-water, swallowed the
refreshing contents at a gulp.

"It's no use, Fred!" he exclaimed. "I'm no good for that late bumming.
I guess I'm getting old. Those midnight orgies never did agree with
me. Hot birds and cold wine are a barbaric mixture, anyhow. I'm going
to cut it out--do you understand?--cut it out. So don't ask me
again--it's no use. I've got a fearful headache this morning--and I'm
so sleepy that I'd like to go to bed for a week. It's idiotic for a
man to make such an infernal ass of himself. It knocks one out and
renders one unfit for business. How can I go down town and understand
what I'm doing when I've got such a head on as this? There's a
directors' meeting to-day, too--very important. What time was it when
we got home?"

"About three o'clock, I should say," rejoined his _vis-a-vis_
laconically, without looking up from his newspaper.

In the fifteen years that they had been intimate friends Fred Hadley
had grown so accustomed to these periodical outbursts from his old
chum Bob Stafford that he seldom paid the slightest heed to his
protests. Both self-made men, each had started practically in the
gutter and by sheer dint of grit and energy forged his way to the
front, the one as a captain of industry, the other as a promoter in
railroading and finance. Men of exceptional capacity, success had come
easily to them, and with success had come money and power. Hadley was
now vice-president of one of the biggest steel concerns in the
country, and Stafford had been even more successful. Attracted to
railroading he had found employment with a western road, and soon
displayed such a positive genius for organization that he quickly
excited the attention of eastern railroad men. Quick promotion
followed, until, at the end of ten years, he became himself a power in
the railroad world. Shrewd deals in Wall Street had already brought
him wealth, and the age of thirty-eight found him in control of ha