time to examine it while he was President he would have carried it through. That was his great regret. He felt that while he had power he could have passed it and ought to have done it. When General Grant took pains and time to look into the subject, no amount of personal feeling or friendship for others would keep him from doing the right thing. He could not be swerved from the right in any case.

Another marked trait of his character was his purity in every way. I never heard him express an impure thought or make an indelicate allusion. There is nothing I ever heard him say that could not be repeated in the presence of women. He never used profane language. He was very temperate in eating and drinking. In his own family, unless guests were present, he seldom drank wine. If a man were brought up for an appointment, and it was shown that he was an immoral man, he would not appoint him, no matter how great the pressure brought to bear by friends.

General Grant would sit in my library with four or five others chatting freely, and doing perhaps two-thirds of the talking. Let a stranger enter whom he did not know, and he would say nothing more during that evening. That was one peculiarity of his. He wouldn't talk to people unless he understood them. At a dinner-party among intimate friends he would lead in the conversation, but any alien element would seal his tongue. This great shyness or reticence sometimes, perhaps, made him misunderstood.

I never heard him say, nor did I ever know him to do, a mean thing. His entire truthfulness, his perfect honesty, were beyond question. I think of him, now that he is dead, with ever-increasing admiration; I can recall no instance of vanity, of bombast or self-laudation. He was one of the greatest, one of the most modest, of men.

WITH GAUGE & SWALLOW.

NO. XI.-A DISSOLVING VIEW.

AUGE & SWALLOW were about to dissolve. A partnership of

gular brilliancy and success. Of course the old partners would remain. The same old names would be upon the door-plate and on the letterheads; but some other name would be joined with them, some other voice would be heard in the counsels of the firm,-some other presence be added to the familiar consultations. I had been with them almost ten years. Except Mr. Barnes and Mr. Burrill, I was the oldest in length of service of all their assistants. My life had been exceptionally pleasant with them. If I had seldom won praise, I had even less frequently received blame. If I had not always merited approval, I had never failed to do my best to deserve it. From the first I had realized that I was not a favorite with either of the partners, but I strove unceasingly to make myself useful to them. If they did not believe me capable of great things, I was determined they should know that I would do little ones with intelligence, despatch, and the most painstaking accuracy.

Fortunately for me, I had early observed that the easiest and surest way for a man of mediocre powers to rise in any business or calling, when he has both fortune and position to achieve, is to make himself as indispensable as possible to others of greater power or alreadyacquired position. More fortunately still, I had never been possessed with the idea that I was gifted with remarkable qualities. I recognized the fact that very many could accomplish what I could not. I realized, also, that what is sometimes termed the magnetic quality was almost entirely lacking in me. Very few ever took a fancy to me at first sight. On the contrary, I had an uncomfortable impression that I was rather antipathetic to most people. I was fortunate in only one thing, an invincible determination to make the most of my ability and opportunity. If I could not do great things, I was determined to do little ones as well as the most gifted. If people would not admire me, I would make them respect me; and if they were not inclined to favor me, they should learn to lean upon me. I had noticed that the most minute part in a machine was very often as important to its operation as the ponderous portions which transmit power or immediately produce results; and, having obtained a place with Gauge & Swallow by mere force of persistence, I determined to make myself essential to the machine that name represented.

I had succeeded in this design even better than I hoped. I had not always been treated with as much consideration as some of my associates. Mr. Swallow sometimes spoke sharply and Mr. Gauge carelessly to me, even yet. My opinions were not always treated with

* Copyright, 1888, by E. K. TOURGEE.

respect, my forensic efforts had been ridiculed, and my early attempts at cross-examination made the stock jests of the office. After a while I found that whenever Mr. Swallow was rude to me Mr. Gauge was apt to be unusually kind. If I was given less than I could have wished of the showy work of the office, I was more than repaid by the confidence displayed in my implicit observance of instructions.

Not only my employers but my associates at the bar also came to rely upon my discretion. I did not needlessly speak of unpleasant things, and never acted the tale-bearer unless I brought pleasant burdens. If one of our professional brethren spoke ill of my employers in my presence, under the sting of defeat or in the heat of conflict, I never mentioned the matter to them. After a while this became known, and I was often thanked for having saved the need of apology or the probability of discord. So, too, I never alluded in the office to anything I heard in the consultation-room. The result was that the partners came to speak almost as unreservedly in my presence as if by themselves. Sometimes, indeed, they seemed quite to overlook my presence, treating me as parents do children who but half understand what is said or are bound by natural ties to silence and discretion.

In the matter of compensation fortune had favored me. I had, either actually or seemingly, saved more to the firm and their clients than any of my fellows, frequently securing by arrangement what would have been lost by litigation; while by close attention to details I had often remedied the remissness of more brilliant associates. If my briefs were not so startling as those of others, it was remarked that my citations could be relied on as sustaining the points I made; and if I was not so brilliant an advocate as some, the courts listened to me with patience, knowing I would not trouble them with unnecessary display. My salary had been increased from time to time, always without request or intimation on my part, until my monthly checks were of the same amount as Mr. Barnes's, who had acted as chief clerk since Mr. Bronson's departure. Besides this, I was often employed in the business of the firm at a distance, with the intimation that I need not itemize my

expense-account.

Because of these things, I had no personal apprehension on account of any change in the membership of the firm; that is, I had no fear that I would not retain my place. At the same time, I had no expectation of a better one. I did not once imagine that I was to be the new partner, though the mission with which I had just been intrusted was one of peculiar responsibility, all the more so from the relation Mr. Swallow sustained to the absent millionaire,-and I was confident Mr. Barnes would not be. Mr. Gauge had never quite liked the chief clerk, in spite of the position he held. Ever since the affair with Bronson, indeed, he had manifested a constant nervousness, amounting almost to espionage, in regard to the papers in every case. Mr. Barnes had shown remarkable ability and very sound judgment in the management of real estate. This branch of our business had long been entirely under his control, and had rapidly and steadily increased since coming into his hands. In the matter of titles, mortgages, and the value of real estate, he had few, if any, superiors in the great

metropolis. He was a man of wonderful executive ability, having a constitution of iron and the happy faculty some people possess of doing a hundred things at a time without seeming to be busy about any of them. When Mr. Bronson left, he took charge of the routine business of the office, through a clerk, still retaining the real estate business. But Mr. Barnes was a clerk, a man of business rather than a lawyer, and I knew that the new partner, whoever he might be, would be one who would at once be recognized by the profession at large as a lawyer.

I could not help feeling apprehensive, as I went back to my desk, however, as to whether the same cordial relation would exist between the newly-constituted firm and myself. There had come into my service not a little of that blind reverence which the young man who is brought into intimate relations with the successful man of middle age is apt to accord. Besides the success and renown of the firm, I had a personal and individual attachment for each of its members. It is true I was only an employee: not once had I ever forgotten that fact, not once had I been permitted to forget it. Our worlds only touched at the perimeters, which impinged where each ran through the office. I had been to the houses of the partners more than once, but it was rather in the capacity of an errand-boy than as a guest. I had made myself acquainted with the members of their households, and was so far a persona grata with their wives that I had more than once been favored with the office of squire of dames when the husband was unable to respond to a demand for his services and a cavalier was desirable. Indeed, I will admit that I counted as one of the advantages of my position the privilege of attending pretty regularly the Saturday matinées, many of which would have been quite beyond my means, even with the increased compensation I received; for I was thriftily inclined, and had lived up to my resolution to make up with interest to my mother the comforts she had sacrificed in my behalf. I took not a little pride, therefore, in the snug premises she occupied contentedly, overlooking the little New England town where my coming at the summer vacation was always heralded by the local press as the "arrival of Mr. Gerald Fountain, Esq., the well-known New York lawyer, at his elegant country-seat, where he will enjoy a brief respite from professional cares."

They did not know that I was only a salaried assistant in the office of Gauge & Swallow, or, if they did know, it made no difference to the simple people of the village. I was a lawyer all the same, and the glamour of the great firm's renown rested like a halo about me. For a fortnight each year, therefore, I was a hero. My tastes are not rural, however, and the chief enjoyment I have derived from my rustic investment has been the pride and comfort of that excellent woman whom it has lifted from a life of penury and toil to one of ease and comfort not too far removed from her former surroundings to be enjoyable. I do not think I have ever been ashamed of my mother: I am sure I have never seen the time when I would permit her to see that her ways are not altogether enjoyable to the son whom she has labored all her life to lift above her own level. Yet I may as well confess that she has succeeded only too well in her efforts. If I were a man of wealth, able

VOL. XLIV.-6

to have my carriage and things of that sort, I would be only too happy to have her come and share my good fortune. As it is, I am afraid I should not like to be seen with her upon my arm in the streets of New York. I am ashamed of the fact. Yet she was not yet old nor ill-looking she only lacked style. There are some men who would not mind such things. Jasper Minton would not. I cannot help wishing I were more like him,-so calm, brave, and unpretentious. As the recollection flashes upon me, I wonder whether he will not be the new partner. I cannot help wishing that he may be, not so much on my own account as for the sake of Mr. Burrill, whose silvery head shows above the top of the desk as I approach. He is putting his papers "to rights," as he says, in view of his journey, and his face is aglow with pleasure at the thought of visiting his native land.

Poor man! I dread to have him know what is in store for him, not so much from any effect the loss of his interest in the firm will have on his financial condition: he is already very comfortably provided, -able to retire, indeed, whenever he is so minded. His interest would, of course, be diminished, perhaps entirely lost. It is not that. I know -and I alone, though I did once hint it to Mr. Swallow-that was six months ago-how the old man's heart yearns for the honor of an equal acknowledged partnership. I believe it would kill him ; but he would be willing to die just to see his name on the door-plate and hear the clerk say, when a case is moved in court, "Gauge, Swallow & Burrill, for the Plaintiffs."

I alone know how he has cherished this dream which his own modesty has made impossible of fulfilment. I think one of the chief reasons why he bought the beautiful house which overlooks bay and river and might be the home of a banker or a stock-speculator was in order that he might do honor to the good fortune he hoped would yet be thrust upon him when finally it shall come.

I am not ashamed to confess that I love Thomas Burrill. He has not only been kind to me, but he has made me his friend, and, to tell the truth, has made me much worthier to be his friend. No one could see as I have for three years the never-failing beauty and sweet kindly courtesy of his daily life without loving him. During all that time I have been his guest in the house where the woman lived whom I loved,-nay, whom I still love. He knows my secret, but never alludes to it. What was her studio is now my study. Nothing is changed,―only a case or two of books added. The picture of Hazzard on the easel is gone, too, and in its place is a plainly-framed charcoal sketch of myself. We found it there when we took possession. "A fine picture," Burrill says, when he comes up for an evening now and then: I know it is merely a trifle, such as a friend might do to show another that he was not entirely forgotten. The little ebony desk was there too she had left the key, with a note saying that I would find all her papers there, and asking me to accept the desk as a present. I have kept her papers-the papers belonging to the property I have in charge-in it ever since, but no others. If she should return to-morrow, I would only have to give her the key and say, "Here is what you left in my care," and when she should look them over she would