"I shall be a lot better satisfied after the fact," said Tom bluntly; and he turned away to avoid meeting Major Dabney and the ladies, who were coming from the elevator to join the two early risers. He had seen next to nothing of Ardea during the three Boston years, and would willingly have seen more. But the new manhood was warning him that time was short, and that he must not mix business with sentiment. So Ardea saw nothing but his back, which, curiously enough, she failed to recognize. Picking up his cab at the curb, Tom had himself driven quickly to the office of the corporation lawyer whose name he had obtained from Mr. Clarkson the day before, and with whom he had made a wire appointment before leaving Boston. The attorney was waiting for him, and Tom stated the case succinctly, adding a brief of the interview which had just taken place at the hotel. "You say they agreed to your proposal?" observed the lawyer. "Did Mr. Farley indicate the method?" "No." "Have you a copy of the by-laws of your company?" Tom produced the packet of papers received that morning from his father, and handed the required pamphlet to Mr. Croswell. "H'm--ha! the usual form. A stock-holders' meeting, with a resolution, would be the simplest way out of it; but that can't be held without the published call. You say your father is a stock-holder?" "He has four hundred and three of the original one thousand shares. I hold his proxy." The attorney smiled shrewdly. "You are a very remarkable young man. You seem to have come prepared at all points. I assume that you are acting under your father's instructions?" "Why, with his approval, of course," Tom amended. "But it is my own initiative, under the advice of a good friend of mine in Boston, thus far. Oh, I know what I'm about," he added, in answer to the latent question in the lawyer's eyes. "You seem to," was the laconic reply. "Now let us see exactly what it is that you want Mr. Farley to concede." "I want him to turn over the entire control of the company's business, operative and financial, to my father." The lawyer smiled again. "That is a pretty big asking. Have you any reason to suppose that Mr. Farley will accede to any such demand?" "Yes; I have very good reasons, but I reckon we needn't go into them here and now. The time is too short; their liner sails at ten." The attorney tilted his chair and became reflective. "The simple way out of it is to have Mr. Farley constitute your father, or yourself, his proxy to vote his stock at a certain specified meeting of the stock-holders, which can be called later. Of course, with a majority vote of the stock, you can rearrange matters to suit yourselves, subject only to Mr. Farley's disarrangement when he resumes control of his holdings. How would that serve?" "You're the doctor," said Tom bruskly. "Any way to get him out and get my father in."