Robert Kimberly

" – And played traitor to me as you have done.But it's of a piece with your whole record. Firstyou got me down here-"

"I never got you down here."

" – Then you began to lay your plans to ruinmy home."

"What were you doing all this time? Tryingto circumvent me by making your home happyor trying to help me by neglecting it?"

MacBirney shook his finger at Kimberly inrage. "You can't escape with smooth phrases.You broke up my home!"

Kimberly had regained his coolness. "No, youbroke it up. Long before I ever saw you, youbroke up your home. It was broken up and onlywaiting for some one to save your wife from thewreck. MacBirney, you have made a success ofyour business; one one-hundredth of the effort youhave given to your business would have saved yourhome. Yet you thought you could treat your wifelike a servant, humiliate and abuse her and stillhold her forth a figurehead for your 'home'!"muttered Kimberly with scorn.

"You, yourself, put her up to the divorce.Deny that, will you?"

"No, I will not deny it," retorted Kimberlyrelapsing into indifference. "After I came into herlife she followed my advice. I believe I haveadvised her for the best."

"I see your finger trailing through every turn ofmy trouble now. I saw it too late. But I'm notdone with you. And I'm not the only man thatunderstands your trickery. Lambert will haveyou on your knees in the sugar business beforeyou are very much older. Now, I have come toyou with a straight proposition. I want theescrow control of the Western refineries. If you areready to give it to me we will make a workingagreement and have peace. If you are not, I willback Lambert in a string of modern plants thatwill drive you out of the Western field. We areready; the question for you to consider is whetheryou want to compromise."

At this threat Kimberly, so far as the wordscould be used of him, went to pieces. To beoutfaced in his own headquarters by one whom hewould have termed a hare-brained upstart in therefining world was too much for his poise. Theonly outward indication of his surprise anddisgust was a smile; but it was a dangerous smile."I am afraid I am not enough of a business manto compromise, MacBirney," he responded inlow tones. "You can't have the escrow controlof the Western refineries."

"Very good. That decision suits me. I amnow practically out of your stock; we shall seewhat we shall see."

"One moment, MacBirney," said Kimberly, moved by some sudden impulse of mercy followinghis rage, as if MacBirney were really too smallfry to pit himself against. "You have brought apersonal affair and a business affair before me.The business affair, as you are still my associate, Imay say a word on. Don't put any money youcan't afford to lose behind Lambert, for it willall go. I myself have not got resources enough togive that man a free hand. He has a genius in onedirection-that of talking men out of their money.

"Moreover, in this case there is a personalfriction of long standing between him and me, andI will never let him lift his head in the sugarbusiness in this country while I am at the head ofthese companies, not if I have to work twenty-fourhours a day to clean him out. But that wouldnot be necessary-for he will not only attend toruining himself but to ruining every man thatgoes with him. If you want to quit us, do so.Build as many refineries as you like and we willtry to get on peaceably with you-though Imyself would not put a dollar into new refineriesto-day. You are rich; you had eight hundredthousand dollars when I paid you for your junk, and you made two million dollars in the Decemberpool alone-a good part of it out of me. Youwill take from these offices eight million dollars inless than three years."

MacBirney's alarm at Kimberly's intimateknowledge of his resources showed in his face."In railroads you might make it forty millionsin the next ten years, with even average prudence,"continued Kimberly calmly. "Sugar will be aload, anyway you go into it; but sugar andLambert will beat you to a frazzle."

Charles Kimberly walked into the room as hisbrother concluded. "Talk a few moments withCharles about this," suggested Kimberly, coolly, ringing for his office secretary.

"MacBirney," explained Robert Kimberly tohis brother, "has sold out his common and hasa lot of money loose. I am telling him to go infor railroads."

The secretary entered. Robert Kimberly aftergiving him some directions, got into his car andwas driven up-town to the residence of thearchbishop. He alighted before a large, remodelledcity house not far from the cathedral. Amessenger had already delivered Hamilton's letter ofintroduction and Kimberly was presentinghimself by appointment.

At the door a man-servant took his card and hewas met in the reception room by a youngclergyman, who conducted him to the second floor. AsKimberly entered the large room into which hewas ushered he saw the prelate rising from histable. He was a grave man and somewhat sparein his height, slightly stooped with the passing ofseventy years, and bearing in the weariness of hisface an expression of kindliness and intelligence.

"This is a pleasure, Mr. Kimberly," he said, extending his hand.

"It is a pleasure for me, your grace."

"Come this way," continued the archbishop, indicating a divan in one corner of the room.

"I brought no letter of introduction other thanthat from Doctor Hamilton, which I sent you,"Kimberly began as the archbishop seated himself.

"Surely, you did not consider even DoctorHamilton's note necessary," returned the archbishop, while his secretary withdrew. "Your name andthat of your family have been familiar to me formany years. And I fear those of my people whoventure in upon you with their petitions do notalways bring letters."

"You have occupied this see for many years,"suggested Kimberly in compliment.

"As priest and bishop I have lived in this diocesemore than forty years. It seems a long time. Yetthe name of Kimberly was very old here when Icame, and without ever meeting one of your family,I have heard much of you all since. So if therewere no other reason, I should welcome your callas an opportunity to tell you how grateful I am, and the charities of the archdiocese are, for yourrepeated generosities. You know we are notblessed among our own people with many benefactorsof large means. And the calls come uponus with surprising frequency."

"My father," responded Kimberly, "who wasmore of a philosopher than a merchant, impressed me very early with the truth that yourchurch was a bulwark of social order-one whichto that extent laid all thoughtful men under adebt to it."

"You are a man of wide interests, Mr. Kimberly."

"The country grows too fast, your grace.There seems no escape from expansion."

"Yet you find time for all of your work?"

Kimberly made a deprecatory gesture. "Mychief affair is to find men to do my work for me.Personally, I am fairly free."

"From all save responsibility, perhaps. Iknow how hard it is to delegate that. And yougive all of your energy to business. You haveno family?"

"No, and this brings me to the object of myvisit." Kimberly paused a moment. "I shallsoon enter into marriage."

"Ah, I see!"

"And the subject is a difficult one to lay beforeyour grace."

The archbishop saw an indefinable embarrassmentin his visitor's manner and raised his thinhand. "Then it has every claim to sympatheticconsideration. Forget for a moment that I amalmost a stranger-I am certainly no stranger todifficulties. And do no longer address meformally. I said a moment ago that I was glad tomeet you if only to thank you for your responsesto our numerous needs. But there is another reason.

"When I was a young man, first ordained, mycharge was the little village of Sunbury up in thelake country. You may imagine how familiarthe Kimberly estates became to me in my dailyrounds of exercise. I heard much of yourpeople. Some of their households were of mycongregation. Your mother I never met. I usedto hear of her as exceedingly frail in health.Once, at least, I recall seeing her driving. Buther servants at The Towers were alwaysinstructed not alone to offer me flowers for thealtar but diligently to see that the altar wasgenerously provided from her gardens and hot-houses.

"I once learned," the archbishop's head droopedslightly in the reminiscence and his eyes rested fullupon his visitor, "that she was passing through adreaded ordeal, concerning which many feared forher. It was on a Sunday before mass that theword came to me. And at the mass I told mylittle flock that the patroness to whom we owedour constant offering of altar flowers was passingthat morning through the valley of the shadowof death, and I asked them to pray for her withme. You were born on a Sunday, Mr. Kimberly." Kimberlydid not break the silence and thearchbishop spoke on. "You see I am quite old enoughmyself to be your father. I remember reading anaccount of your baptism."

Kimberly looked keenly into the clear, grayeyes. Not a shade of thought in the mind of theman before him was lost upon his penetration."Any recollection of my mother," he said slowly,"touches me deeply. To think that you recall herso beautifully is very grateful to me-as you maywell imagine. And that was my birthday! Thenif my mother was, or I have ever been, able tohelp you I am sure we are repaid in being soremembered all these years. I lost my father andmy mother many years ago-"

He paused. "It is very pleasant to be remembered,"he repeated uncertainly, as if collectinghimself. "I shall never forget what you havejust told me. And I thank you now for theprayers you said for my mother when she broughtme into the world. Your grace," he addedabruptly, "I am greatly perplexed."

"Tell me frankly, how and why."

"I came here with some confidence of gettingwhat I should ask for. I am naturally aconfident man. Yet my assurance deserts me. Itseems, suddenly, that my mission here is vain, that my hopes have deluded me-I even askmyself why I have come. I could almost say Iam sorry that I have come."

The archbishop lifted his hand to speak. "Believeme, it is not other than for good that youhave come," he said.

Kimberly looked at him questioningly. "Icannot tell for what good," added the archbishopas if to say he could not answer the unspokenquestion. "But believe me, you have doneright and not wrong in coming-of that I amsure. Tell me, first, what you came to tell me, what it is in your heart that has brought you here."

CHAPTER XXXVIII

"I must tell you," began Kimberly, "that whileseemingly in a wide authority in directing thebusiness with which I am connected I am notalways able to do just as I please. Either voluntarilyor involuntarily, I yield at times to the viewsof those associated with me. If my authority isfinal, I prefer not to let the fact obtrude itself.Again, circumstances are at times too strong forany business man to set his mere personal viewsagainst. Yielding some years ago to therepresentations of my associates I took into ourcompanies a group of Western factories controlled bya man whom I distrusted.

"To protect our interests it was necessary tomove, in the premises, in one of two ways. Ifavored the alternative or driving him out of thebusiness then and there. There were difficultiesin either direction. If we ruined him we shouldbe accused of 'trust methods,' of crushing acompetitor, and should thus incur added public enmity.On the other hand, I contended if the man wereuntrustworthy he would grow more dangerouswith power. I need hardly explain to an intelligentman, regardless of his views on trusts, thatany man of integrity, no matter how threateningor violent a competitor he may be in the beginning,is a man we welcome as an associate into ourbusiness. We need him just as he needsus-but that is aside. We took the man in-"

"Against your judgment?"

"Against my judgment. I never met himuntil he came East. My estimates of him weremade wholly on his record, and I knew what isknown to but few-that he had ruined his ownfather-in-law, who died a bankrupt directlythrough this man's machinations, and withoutever suspecting him. This seemed to me sounspeakable, so cannibalistic, that I never needed toknow anything further of the man. Yet I tookhim in, determined only to add a new care inwatching him and still to keep him in my powerso that I could crush him if he ever played false.

"He came to us-and brought his wife. I knewthe man thoroughly the instant I set eyes on him.His appearance confirmed my impression. But Imet his wife, and found in her a woman toengage respect, homage, and devotion, one with acharm of manner and person to me unequalled; with a modesty coupled with spirit and humor thatconfounded my ideas of women-a woman, in aword, like my own mother. I am keepingnothing from you-"

"Your confidence is safely bestowed."