near by. At the foot of the
slope of the River Drive ran a hideous freight-railroad; and across the
river the beautiful Palisades were being blown to pieces to make paving
stone--and meantime were covered with advertisements of land-companies.
And if there was a beautiful building, there, was sure to be a tobacco
advertisement beside it; if there was a beautiful avenue, there were
trucks and overworked horses toiling in the harness; if there was a
beautiful park, it was filled with wretched, outcast men. Nowhere was
any order or system--everything was struggling for itself, and jarring
and clashing with everything else; and this broke the spell of power
which the Titan city would otherwise have produced. It seemed like a
monstrous heap of wasted energies; a mountain in perpetual labour, and
producing an endless series of abortions. The men and women in it were
wearing themselves out with toil; but there was a spell laid upon them,
so that, struggle as they might, they accomplished nothing.

Coming out of the church, Montague had met Judge Ellis; and the Judge
had said, "I shall soon have something to talk over with you." So
Montague gave him his address, and a day or two later came an
invitation to lunch with him at his club.

The Judge's club took up a Fifth Avenue block, and was stately and
imposing. It had been formed in the stress of the Civil War days; lean
and hungry heroes had come home from battle and gone into business, and
those who had succeeded had settled down here to rest. To see them now,
dozing in huge leather-cushioned arm-chairs, you would have had a hard
time to guess that they had ever been lean and hungry heroes. They were
diplomats and statesmen, bishops and lawyers, great merchants and
financiers--the men who had made the city's ruling-class for a century.
Everything here was decorous and grave, and the waiters stole about
with noiseless feet.

Montague talked with the Judge about New York and what he had seen of
it, and the people he had met; and about his father, and the war; and
about the recent election and the business outlook. And meantime they
ordered luncheon; and when they had got to the cigars, the Judge
coughed and said, "And now I have a matter of business to talk over
with you."

Montague settled himself to listen. "I have a friend," the Judge
explained--"a very good friend, who has asked me to find him a lawyer
to undertake an important case. I talked the matter over with Genera