The next day’s conference at the Executive Mansion was long and interesting. It is not necessary to report it in detail. It rambled over the vast ramifications of the subject in a more haphazard and cursory way than the matter was afterwards treated by the more deliberate tribunal to which it was eventually referred. The president appeared rather tired and anxious when he greeted his guests, and so did the secretary of the treasury. “I told you we should be better able to deal with our difficulty after a night’s sleep,” remarked the president with a smile, as he grasped Brent’s hands. “I for one did not find it an easy matter to sleep upon.” “Nor I,” observed the secretary sententiously. “Wharton and I, on the contrary, have enjoyed better rest the last two nights, since deciding to share our responsibility with you, than we have had for weeks,” responded Brent, with some appearance of elation. “Probably then your clearer heads have been more fertile than ours in plans for meeting the emergency,” suggested the president, adding, with a twinkle of humor in his eye, “It would be only fair for you to point out some line of escape from the dangers with which you have surrounded us.” Brent’s attempt to smile in response to this sally was not very mirthful. “My poor brain,” he said, “is quite callous under any spur to effort in that direction. In fact, I have so completely lost confidence in it, that only the other day I begged my friend Wharton to take the whole load of gold off my shoulders, and dispose of it in any way he liked.” “And he spurned the offer? You are indeed a modern Midas, Mr. Brent, cursed with sumless gold beyond even the craving of human cupidity. It is not easy to convince the mind that fable has become reality, that solid, scientific, nineteenth-century life is suddenly confronted with a condition which society is utterly unprepared to meet.” The president gave rein to his thought in this strain for a moment longer. Then he turned resolutely to the concrete problem in hand, saying: “My attitude toward the Congress is, under the circumstances, somewhat embarrassing. I have summoned a special session to deal with the financial situation. The aspect of affairs had very much changed before you came to me yesterday with your startling revelation. Precautions which I would have recommended a month ago are no longer expedient. In view of what you have told me, the less legislation we have just now the better. I have about decided to advise the calling of a monetary conference--the world-wide financial disturbance is sufficient justification for it--and to suggest two or three harmless palliative measures for giving relief to present monetary distress, and for strengthening public confidence. Do you think of any better plan?”