Many of his friends were wealthy men, and his private
ambition was to amass a handsome fortune. That had been the cause of his
speculative ventures in local enterprises which promised large returns,
and in the stock market. Horace Elton was a friend of but three years'
standing; one of the men who had consulted him occasionally in regard to
legal matters since he had become a corporation attorney. He admired
Elton's strong, far-reaching grasp of business affairs, his capacity to
formulate and incubate on plans of magnitude without betraying a sign of
his intentions, and his power to act with lightning despatch and
overwhelming vigor when the moment for the consummation of his purposes
arrived. He also found agreeable Elton's genial, easy-going ways outside
of business hours, which frequently took the form of social
entertainment at which expense seemed to be no consideration and
gastronomic novelties were apt to be presented. Lyons attended one of
these private banquets while in Washington--a dinner party served to a
carefully chosen company of public men, to which newspaper scribes were
unable to penetrate. This same genial, easy-going tendency of Elton's to
make himself acceptable to those with whom he came in contact took the
form of a gift to Mrs.
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