print," he said.

The words, or the tone in which he spoke, curiously transformed the
picture. It was as if I now beheld it, anew, through his vision: the
grey water stretching eastward to melt into the grey sky, the massed,
black trees on the hillside, powdered with white, the snow in rounded,
fantastic patches on the huge boulders at the foot of the cliff. Krebs
did not seem like a stranger, but like one whom I had known always,--one
who stood in a peculiar relationship between me and something greater I
could not define. The impression was fleeting, but real.... I remember
wondering how he could have known anything about Japanese prints.

"I didn't think you were still in this part of the country," I remarked
awkwardly.

"I'm a reporter on a Boston newspaper, and I've been sent up here to
interview old Mr. Dome, who lives in that house," and he pointed to a
roof above the trees. "There is a rumour, which I hope to verify, that
he has just given a hundred thousand dollars to the University."

"And--won't he see you?"

"At present he's taking a nap," said Krebs. "He comes here occasionally
for a rest."

"Do you like interviewing?" I asked.

He smiled again.

"Well, I see a good many different kinds of people, and that's
interesting."

"But--being a reporter?" I persisted.

This continued patronage was not a conscious expression of superiority
on my part, but he did not seem to resent it. He had aroused my
curiosity.

"I'm going into the law," he said.

The quiet confidence with which he spoke aroused, suddenly, a twinge
of antagonism. He had every right to go into the law, of course,
and yet!... my query would have made it evident to me, had I been
introspective in those days, that the germ of the ideal of the
profession, implanted by Mr. Watling, was expanding. Were not
influential friends necessary for the proper kind of career? and where
were Krebs's? In spite of the history of Daniel Webster and a long
line of American tradition, I felt an incongruity in my classmate's
aspiration. And as he stood there, gaunt and undoubtedly hungry, his
eyes kindling, I must vaguely have classed him with the revolutionaries
of all the ages; must have felt in him, instinctively, a menace to the
stability of that Order with which I had thrown my fortunes. And yet
there were comparatively poor men in the Law School itself who had not
made me feel this way! He had impressed me against my will, taken me by
surprise, com