“Come back soon and tell me about it,” she said, and I walked, exhilarated, to the train....  As I sped through the night, staring out of the window into the darkness, I reflected on the man I was going to see.  But at that time, although he represented to me the quintessence of achievement and power, I did not by any means grasp the many sided significance of the phenomenon he presented, though I was keenly aware of his influence, and that men spoke of him with bated breath.  Presidents came and went, kings and emperors had responsibilities and were subject daily to annoyances, but this man was a law unto himself.  He did exactly what he chose, and compelled other men to do it.  Wherever commerce reigned,—­and where did it not?—­he was king and head of its Holy Empire, Pope and Emperor at once.  For he had his code of ethics, his religion, and those who rebelled, who failed to conform, he excommunicated; a code something like the map of Europe,—­apparently inconsistent in places.  What I did not then comprehend was that he was the American Principle personified, the supreme individual assertion of the conviction that government should remain modestly in the background while the efficient acquired the supremacy that was theirs by natural right; nor had I grasped at that time the crowning achievement of a unity that fused Christianity with those acquisitive dispositions said to be inherent in humanity.  In him the Lion and the Lamb, the Eagle and the Dove dwelt together in amity and power.

New York, always a congenial place to gentlemen of vitality and means and influential connections, had never appeared to me more sparkling, more inspiring.  Winter had relented, spring had not as yet begun.  And as I sat in a corner of the dining-room of my hotel looking out on the sunlit avenue I was conscious of partaking of the vigour and confidence of the well-dressed, clear-eyed people who walked or drove past my window with the air of a conquering race.  What else was there in the world more worth having than this conquering sense?  Religion might offer charms to the weak.  Yet here religion itself became sensible, and wore the garb of prosperity.  The stonework of the tall church on the corner was all lace; and the very saints in their niches, who had known martyrdom and poverty, seemed to have renounced these as foolish, and to look down complacently on the procession of wealth and power..  Across the street, behind a sheet of glass, was a carrosserie where were displayed the shining yellow and black panels of a closed automobile, the cost of which would have built a farm-house and stocked a barn.

At eleven o’clock, the appointed hour, I was in Wall Street.  Sending in my name, I was speedily ushered into a room containing a table, around which were several men; but my eyes were drawn at once to the figure of the great banker who sat, massive and preponderant, at one end, smoking a cigar, and listening in silence to the conversation I had interrupted.  He rose courteously and gave me his hand, and a glance that is unforgettable.