“Yet he did not seem an ambitious man,” said Le Grand.  “He cared nothing for social success, he never has accepted office till now, and he has refused over and over again law work which meant big money.”

“No,” said Ray.  “Peter worked hard in law and politics.  Yet he didn’t want office or money.  He could more than once have been a judge, and Costell wanted him governor six years ago.  He took the nomination this year against his own wishes.  He cared as little for money or reputation in law, as he cared for society, and would compromise cases which would have added greatly to his reputation if he had let them go to trial.  He might have been worth double what he is to-day, if he had merely invested his money, instead of letting it lie in savings banks or trust companies.  I’ve spoken about it repeatedly to him, but he only said that he wasn’t going to spend time taking care of money, for money ceased to be valuable when it had to be taken care of; its sole use to him being to have it take care of him.  I think he worked for the sake of working.”

“That explains Peter, certainly.  His one wish was to help others,” said Miss De Voe.  “He had no desire for reputation or money, and so did not care to increase either.”

“And mark my words,” said Lispenard.  “From this day, he’ll set no limit to his endeavors to obtain both.”

“He can’t work harder than he has to get political power,” said an usher.  “Think of how anxious he must have been to get it, when he would spend so much time in the slums and saloons!  He couldn’t have liked the men he met there.”

“I’ve taken him to task about that, and told him he had no business to waste his time so,” said Ogden; “but he said that he was not taking care of other people’s money or trying to build up a great business, and that if he chose to curtail his practice, so as to have some time to work in politics, it was a matter of personal judgment.”

“I once asked Peter,” said Miss De Voe, “how he could bear, with his tastes and feelings, to go into saloons, and spend so much time with politicians, and with the low, uneducated people of his district.  He said, ’That is my way of trying to do good, and it is made enjoyable to me by helping men over rough spots, or by preventing political wrong.  I have taken the world and humanity as it is, and have done what I could, without stopping to criticise or weep over shortcomings and sins.  I admire men who stand for noble impossibilities.  But I have given my own life to the doing of small possibilities.  I don’t say the way is the best.  But it is my way, for I am a worker, not a preacher.  And just because I have been willing to do things as the world is willing to have them done, power and success have come to me to do more.’  I believe it was because Peter had no wish for worldly success, that it came to him.”

“You are all wrong,” groaned Lispenard.  “I love Peter as much as I love my own kin, with due apology to those of it who are present, but I must say that his whole career has been the worst case of sheer, downright luck of which I ever saw or heard.”