"You bet you didn't; he's a lawyer himself."
"I thought he smiled when he shook hands."
"You remember that old Latin proverb we used to get off at college? I was punk in Latin, but I never forgot that—'Harus pex ad harus picem' when one priest meets another it's to smile! The lawyers are the high priests of the modern world. Only the women support the church."
"At least we can thank God there are only a few such men who force their way into decent society."
"I guess you are right," Bivens answered, "and he couldn't do it by the brute power of his money only. He has brains and culture combined with the daring of the devil. Still, Jim, most of the big bugs who come here to-night live in glass houses and have long ago learned that it don't pay to throw stones."
A titled nobleman passed, and Bivens winked.
"The poor we have with us always!"
Stuart smiled and returned at once to the point.
"Just what did you mean by that last remark about glass houses?"
"Simply this, old man, that all these high-browed society people who turn up their noses behind my back and marvel at my low origin and speak in bated whispers about my questionable financial strokes—all have their little secrets. For my own comfort I've made a special study of great fortunes in America. The funny thing is that apparently every one of them was founded on some questionable trick of trade."