the opinion that I had not been long enough re-established in business to be able to persuade people of wealth and influence to take hold of my project.  And one of my guests very aptly observed that I could not afford to be a philanthropist, which objection I met by saying that all I intended to do was to supply ideas for those who could afford to apply them.  The conference ended satisfactorily.  My employers disclaimed any personal objection to my proceeding with my project, if I would, and yet remaining in their employ.  They simply urged me to “go slow.”  “Wait until you’re forty,” one of them said.  I then thought that I might do so.  And perhaps I should have waited so long, had not the events of the next two days put me on the right road to an earlier execution of my cherished plans.

The next day, January 4th, true to my word, I went home.  That night I had a long talk with my brother.  I did not suspect that a man like myself, capable of dealing with bankers and talking for several consecutive hours with his employers without arousing their suspicion as to his mental condition, was to be suspected by his own relatives.  Nor, indeed, with the exception of my brother, who had read my suspiciously excellent letter, were any of my relatives disturbed; and he did nothing to disabuse my assurance.  After our night conference he left for his own home, casually mentioning that he would see me again the next morning.  That pleased me, for I was in a talkative mood and craved an interested listener.

When my brother returned the next morning, I willingly accepted his invitation to go with him to his office, where we could talk without fear of interruption.  Arrived there, I calmly sat down and prepared to prove my whole case.  I had scarcely “opened fire” when in walked a stranger—­a strapping fellow, to whom my brother immediately introduced me.  I instinctively felt that it was by no mere chance that this third party had so suddenly appeared.  My eyes at once took in the dark blue trousers worn by the otherwise conventionally dressed stranger.  That was enough.  The situation became so clear that the explanations which followed were superfluous.  In a word, I was under arrest, or in imminent danger of being arrested.  To say that I was not in the least disconcerted would scarcely be true, for I had not divined my brother’s clever purpose in luring me to his office.  But I can say, with truth, that I was the coolest person in the room.  I knew what I should do next, but my brother and the officer of the law could only guess.  The fact is I did nothing.  I calmly remained seated, awaiting the verdict which I well knew my brother, with characteristic decision, had already prepared.  With considerable effort—­for the situation, he has since told me, was the most trying one of his life—­he informed me that on the preceding day he had talked with the doctors to whom I had so opportunely exhibited myself a week earlier.  All agreed that I was in