in Mrs. Master's judgment; everything was
painted in coal blacks or glittering whites. She saw no mediums in
character; he who was not good in every particular was capable of most
sorts of deviltry, in her opinion.

This antagonism between the president and the cashier did not reach its
acute stage until Millard had been in the bank for more than three
years. Millard had made his way in the estimation of the directors in
part by his ever-widening acquaintance with people of importance. His
social connections enabled him to be of service to many men whose
good-will was beneficial to the bank, and he was a ready directory to
financial and family relationships, and to the business history and
standing of those with whom the bank had dealings. Add to these
advantages his considerable holdings of the bank's stock, and it is easy
to comprehend how in spite of his youth he had come to stand next to
Masters and Farnsworth. The dissensions between these two were
disagreeable to one who had a decided preference for quietude and
placidity of manners; but he kept aloof from their quarrel, though he
must have had private grievances against a superior so pragmatical as
Farnsworth.

A sort of magnanimity was mingled with craft in Masters's constitution,
and, besides, he much preferred the road that was likely to give him the
fewest jolts. The natural tendency of his irritation was to die away.
This would have been the result in spite of the spur that Mrs. Masters
supplied--applied, rather--if Farnsworth could have been content to let
things take their natural course; but he could not abide to let anything
go its natural way: he would have attempted a readjustment of the
relations between the moon and tides if he had thought himself favorably
situated for puttering in such matters. The temporary obstruction which
Masters offered to his fussy willfulness seemed to the cashier an
outrage hard to be borne. After he had taken so many tedious years to
establish his ascendancy in nine-tenths of the bank's affairs it was
sheer impertinence in Masters to wish to have any considerable share in
the management. The backset to his ambition made him more sleepless than
ever, bringing on frequent attacks of asthma. He lost interest even in
the dinner parties, with a business squint, that he had been so fond of
giving. Mrs. Farnsworth was under the frequent necessity of holding a
platter of burning stramonium under his nose to subdue the paroxysms