It is nearly four o'clock. Walking slowly up Broadway is a person probably about fifty-five, of medium height, inclining to be stout, who carries his hands behind him as he proceeds thoughtfully along. His dress is particularly neat. His hat, while it conceals an excessive baldness, permits the escape of a quantity of light hair, quite unmixed with gray, which fringes the back of the head. At a distance, his complexion looks soft and fair; but, on closer observation, it has the appearance of smooth leather. Occasionally he raises his face to regard a building, as if he had a special interest in so doing; then one may see a light-blue eye, clear and icy as a fine December day, having an expression like a flint. He walks on. Two young men are just passing him. One says to his companion: 'Do you know who that is?' 'Which?' 'That old fellow right by your side.' 'No. Who is it?' 'That's Hiram Meeker.' 'You don't say so!' He pauses, and lets the individual alluded to pass, that he may take a good look at him. 'I would like to have some of his cash, anyhow. What do you suppose he is worth?' 'Oh, there is no telling; he is variously estimated at from five to ten millions, but nobody knows. Started without a penny, as clerk in a ship-chandler's store.' Yes, reader, that _is_ Hiram. [We shall continue our familiarity, and call him, when we see fit, by his first name.] That is our old acquaintance Hiram Meeker, who commenced at Hampton, with Benjamin Jessup--Hiram Meeker of Burnsville, now the great Hiram Meeker of New York. We have devoted a large part of this volume to Hiram's early career, going into the minutiae of his education, his religious training, and his business life. This was not without design. For the reader, once in possession of these circumstances, had no need to be informed in detail of the achievements of those years in which Hiram worked vigorously on through successive stages in his career, while his heart grew hard as the nether millstone. As you see him now, pursuing his way along the street, he has really but one single absorbing idea--ACQUISITION. True, he clings to his belief in the importance of church membership. He has long been the leading vestryman at St. Jude's. He is the friend and adviser of the Bishop. Famous is Hiram Meeker the millionaire! Famous is Hiram Meeker the Churchman! Still, I repeat, he has but one thought--one all-absorbing, all-engrossing passion. You have not forgotten, I am sure, the early calculating policy of Hiram, and to what degree he had carried it when we took leave of him. Imagine this developed and intensified day by day, month by month, and year by year, over more than a quarter of a century.