III

Phil Goodrich had once said that Mr. Plimpton’s translation of the national motto E pluribus unum, was “get together,” and it was true that not the least of Mr. Plimpton’s many gifts was that of peace making.  Such was his genius that he scented trouble before it became manifest to the world, and he stoutly declared that no difference of opinion ever existed between reasonable men that might not be patched up before the breach became too wide—­provided that a third reasonable man contributed his services.  The qualifying word “reasonable” is to be noted.  When Mr. Bedloe Hubbell had undertaken, in the name of Reform, to make a witch’s cauldron of the city’s politics, which Mr. Beatty had hitherto conducted so smoothly from the back room of his saloon, Mr. Plimpton had unselfishly offered his services.  Bedloe Hubbell, although he had been a playmate of Mr. Plimpton’s wife’s, had not proved “reasonable,” and had rejected with a scorn only to be deemed fanatical the suggestion that Mr. Hubbell’s interests and Mr. Beatty’s interests need not clash, since Mr. Hubbell might go to Congress!  And Mr. Plimpton was the more hurt since the happy suggestion was his own, and he had had no little difficulty in getting Mr. Beatty to agree to it.

Yet Mr. Plimpton’s career in the ennobling role of peacemaker had, on the whole, been crowned with such success as to warrant his belief in the principle.  Mr. Parr, for instance,—­in whose service, as in that of any other friend, Mr. Plimpton was always ready to act—­had had misunderstandings with eminent financiers, and sometimes with United States Senators.  Mr. Plimpton had made many trips to the Capitol at Washington, sometimes in company with Mr. Langmaid, sometimes not, and on one memorable occasion had come away smiling from an interview with the occupant of the White House himself.

Lest Mr. Plimpton’s powers of premonition seem supernatural, it may be well to reveal the comparative simplicity of his methods.  Genius, analyzed, is often disappointing, Mr. Plimpton’s was selective and synthetic.  To illustrate in a particular case, he had met Mr. Parr in New York and had learned that the Reverend Mr. Hodder had not only declined to accompany the banker on a yachting trip, but had elected to remain in the city all summer, in his rooms in the parish house, while conducting no services.  Mr. Parr had thought this peculiar.  On his return home Mr. Plimpton had one day dropped in to see a Mr. Gaines, the real estate agent for some of his property.  And Mr. Plimpton being hale-fellow-well-met, Mr. Gaines had warned him jestingly that he would better not let his parson know that he owned a half interest in a certain hotel in Dalton Street, which was leased at a profitable rate.

If Mr. Plimpton felt any uneasiness, he did not betray it.  And he managed to elicit from the agent, in an entirely casual and jovial manner, the fact that Mr. Hodder, a month or so before, had settled the rent of a woman for a Dalton Street flat, and had been curious to discover the name of the owner.  Mr. Gaines, whose business it was to recognize everybody, was sure of Mr. Hodder, although he had not worn clerical clothes.