The Judge had risen while speaking, and put on his overcoat. He took his hat now, and glanced to note that Tenney was also on his feet. Then he added these further words to the young man, whose head was drooping in spite of himself, and whose figure had sunk into a crouching posture in the easy-chair: “Let me give you some advice. Take precious good care not to annoy me any more while this business is on. I never did take much stock in you. It was Tenney who picked you out, and who thought you could be useful. I didn’t believe in you from the start. Now that I’ve summered and wintered you, I stand amazed, by God! that I could ever have let you get mixed up in my affairs. But here you are, and it will be easier for us to put up with you, and carry you along, than throw you out. Besides, you may be able to do some good, if what I’ve said puts any sense into your head. But don’t run away with the idea that you are necessary to us, or that you are going to share anything, as you call it, or that you can so much as lift your finger against us without first of all crushing yourself. This is plain talk, and it may help you to size yourself up as you really are. According to your own notion of yourself, God Almighty’s overcoat would have about made you a vest. My idee of you is different, you see, and I’m a good deal nearer right than you are. I’ll send the papers over to you to-morrow, and let us see what you will do with them.” The New York magnate turned on his heel at this, and, without any word of adieu, he and Tenney left the room. Horace sat until long after midnight in his chair, with the bottle before him, half-dazed and overwhelmed amidst the shapeless ruins of his ambition. CHAPTER XXIX.--THE MISTS CLEARING AWAY. REUBEN Tracy rose at an unwontedly early hour next morning, under the spur of consciousness that he had a very busy day before him. While he was still at his breakfast in the hotel dining-room, John Fairchild came to keep an appointment made the previous evening, and the two men were out on the streets together before Thessaly seemed wholly awake. Their first visit was to the owner of the building which the Citizens’ Club had thought of hiring, and their business here was promptly despatched; thence they made their way to the house of a boss-carpenter, and within the hour they had called upon a plumber, a painter, and one or two other master artisans. By ten o’clock those of this number with whom arrangements had been made had put in an appearance at the building in question, and Tracy and Fairchild explained to them the plans which they were to carry out. The discussion and settlement of these consumed the time until noon, when the lawyer and the editor separated, and Reuben went to his office.