ried Oliver; "did you come to New York to preach
sermons?"

To which the other answered, "I came to practise law. And the lawyer
who will not fight injustice is a traitor to his profession."

Oliver threw up his hands in despair. What could one say to a sentiment
such as that?

--But then again he came to the charge, pointing out to his brother the
position in which he had placed himself with the Wallings. He had
accepted their hospitality; they had taken him and Alice in, and done
everything in the world for them--things for which no money could ever
repay them. And now he had struck them!

But the only effect of that was to make Montague regret that he had
ever had anything to do with the Wallings. If they expected to use
their friendship to tie his hands in such a matter, they were people he
would have left alone.

"But do you realize that it's not merely yourself you're ruining?"
cried Oliver. "Do you know what you're doing to Alice?"

"That is harder yet for me," the other replied. "But I am sure that
Alice would not ask me to stop."

Montague was firmly set in his own mind; but it seemed to be quite
impossible for his brother to realize that this was the case. He would
give up; but then, going back into his own mind, and facing the thought
of this person and that, and the impossibility of the situation which
would arise, he would return to the attack with new anguish in his
voice. He implored and scolded, and even wept; and then he would get
himself together again, and come and sit in front of his brother and
try to reason with him.

And so it was that in the small hours of the morning, Montague, pale
and nervous, but quite unshaken, was sitting and listening while his
brother unfolded before him a picture of the Metropolis as he had come
to see it. It was a city ruled by mighty forces--money-forces; great
families and fortunes, which had held their sway for generations, and
regarded the place, with all its swarming millions, as their
birthright. They possessed it utterly--they held it in the hollow of
their hands. Railroads and telegraphs and telephones--banks and
insurance and trust companies--all these they owned; and the political
machines and the legislatures, the courts and the newspapers, the
churches and the colleges. And their rule was for plunder; all the
streams of profit ran into their coffers. The stranger who came to
their city succeeded as he helped them in their purposes, and failed if
t