in the big cities, can they?"
pursued Mr. Gunterson, following up his advantage.

"No," said Smith, shortly. "The rule won't affect us here in New York,
nor in Boston, nor Philadelphia, nor Buffalo, nor Baltimore. At least
those places, and some others, have always been excepted cities--making
their own rules. Unless the local agents through the local boards vote
for separation, we're safe there. I'd hate to see a fight started in
those towns, though."

"You seem a little reluctant to get into any controversy, Richard,"
said Mr. Wintermuth, kindly. "To be sure, you haven't been through so
many as we have. But sometimes it is necessary to fight--and fight
hard, too."

"He has not weathered as many storms as you, sir," Gunterson
interpolated with a smile. "Nor," he added, "as many as I myself,
perhaps."

"Perhaps not," said Smith, dryly. "Is there anything else you want of
me, sir?" he turned to the President. "If not, I guess I'll get back
to my mail."

"Go ahead," returned his chief. "Mr. Gunterson and I will plan this
thing out together."

And Smith left the office with as much numb despondency in his heart as
he had ever felt in his thirty-odd years. He knew--what the others did
not seem fully to appreciate--that there was an animus in this attack
of O'Connor's which would stick at nothing. He saw, or he believed he
saw, the excepted cities of Boston, Philadelphia, and the rest, under
the polite coercion of the Eastern Conference, passing similar
separation rules of their own. He foresaw the Guardian forced out of
Graham and Peck's agency in Philadelphia, out of the Silas Osgood
office in Boston, and losing its long established connections in other
cities where the Guardian's business was as well selected and
profitable as that of any company of them all. He looked gloomily down
a long vista of losses and disappointments, and it appeared to him
there could naturally be but one end. However, it was no doing of his.
He was there to obey orders and to transact the company's business as
the management desired it to be done, and in the press of other
crowding matters he was glad to forget everything but the tasks before
him.

The days succeeding the Conference announcement brought very little in
the way of further developments. So still was the insurance stage,
indeed, that Mr. Gunterson began to think that there would be no
trouble, after all, and Smith to speculate on the ominous stillness and