“Ah! but he deceives himself; he really believes that he held up the pillars of the Union cause and who are we to question him? And he’s an ardent if cautious reformer; he’d rather cut the ten commandments to a scant six than mutilate the present tariff, which alone is holy to us Pennsylvanians. Do you know, this salad is really edible; I must congratulate Mrs. Blair on her cook. Of course we’re to see you everywhere now. Please don’t be running off all the time; it’s demoralizing. If we good people don’t stay at home, what, may I ask, will become of Pittsburg? We produce everything in Pennsylvania, as you may have noticed--everything but local pride!” CHAPTER XI PADDOCK DELIVERS AN INVITATION It was remarked by the clerical staff in the Craighill offices that in the weeks following Walsh’s removal to the jobbing house, Wayne was unusually attentive to his office duties. Clerks in the habit of leaving reports on his desk found themselves questioned in regard to them before the young man gave his visé, which had been scrawled carelessly heretofore upon anything thrust before him. It should not too lightly be assumed that Wayne had experienced any sudden conversion or that his unwonted diligence was due to the prickings of conscience; but it had occurred to him, at the passing of Walsh, that he really knew little of his father’s affairs. Roger Craighill’s reputation for business ability was solidly established. Until it became the fashion for trust companies to perform such services, he had often been chosen to administer estates; but in keeping with his wish to give more time to public service he had gradually freed himself of such duties. His marriage, changing necessarily the ultimate distribution of his estate, had piqued Wayne’s curiosity as to his father’s wealth. His long-gathering resentment against his father needed facts with which to fortify and strengthen itself. He was skeptical as to all of his father’s virtues and the marriage had demolished his confidence in his father’s conservatism and caution. He now began to test the outward gilt of the resplendent statue of Roger Craighill already imaginably set up by admiring fellow-citizens in the market place. He had only the vaguest idea of the nature of contracts; but he examined a great number of these documents, affecting the ownership and control of properties whose titles were only names to him. He even began summarizing and tabulating these, the better to study them. His father, as of old, referred to him, day by day, matters whose triviality now struck him with greater force than before in view of his growing grasp of affairs.