es of board meetings, transactions of weight, or
cases known to the initiated as significant. "Mr. Scherer's interests
were taken care of by Mr. Hugh Paret." The fact that my triumphs were
modestly set forth gave me more pleasure than if they had been trumpeted
in headlines. Although I might have started out in practice for myself,
my affection and regard for Mr. Watling kept me in the firm, which
became Watling, Fowndes and Paret, and a new, arrangement was entered
into: Mr. Ripon retired on account of ill health.

There were instances, however, when a certain amount of annoying
publicity was inevitable. Such was the famous Galligan case, which
occurred some three or four years after my marriage. Aloysius Galligan
was a brakeman, and his legs had become paralyzed as the result of an
accident that was the result of defective sills on a freight car. He
had sued, and been awarded damages of $15,000. To the amazement and
indignation of Miller Gorse, the Supreme Court, to which the Railroad
had appealed, affirmed the decision. It wasn't the single payment of
$15,000 that the Railroad cared about, of course; a precedent might be
established for compensating maimed employees which would be expensive
in the long run. Carelessness could not be proved in this instance.
Gorse sent for me. I had been away with Maude at the sea for two months,
and had not followed the case.

"You've got to take charge, Paret, and get a rehearing. See Bering,
and find out who in the deuce is to blame for this. Chesley's one, of
course. We ought never to have permitted his nomination for the Supreme
Bench. It was against my judgment, but Varney and Gill assured me that
he was all right."

I saw Judge Bering that evening. We sat on a plush sofa in the parlour
of his house in Baker Street.

"I had a notion Gorse'd be mad," he said, "but it looked to me as if
they had it on us, Paret. I didn't see how we could do anything else but
affirm without being too rank. Of course, if he feels that way, and you
want to make a motion for a rehearing, I'll see what can be done."

"Something's got to be done," I replied. "Can't you see what such a
decision lets them in for?"

"All right," said the judge, who knew an order when he heard one, "I
guess we can find an error." He was not a little frightened by the
report of Mr. Gorse's wrath, for election-day was approaching. "Say, you
wouldn't take me for a sentimental man, now, would you?"

I smiled at the noti