midnight
There are very few positions which make greater demands upon one 's judgment , one 's diplomacy , and one 's temper than this one which Mr. Cuyler had filled so long and so inimitably . To pick a man 's pocket of all its contents , deliberately selecting those of sufficient value to retain and throwing the remainder back in his face , is a matter for fine art , for the broker must not be angered or a good connection is lost to the office . And there are artists in both galleries . There are placers who have all the fine frenzy of a starving poet in a midnight garret , men who would make the fortune of a country hotel if they would but write for it a single testimonial advertisement , men whose flow of persuasive talk is almost hypnotic , whose victims are held just as surely as ever was Wedding Guest -- and with this difference , that while that classic personage merely turned up late to the ceremony , these charmed men listen to the siren tongue until they find themselves doing things which may very readily -- if fate is unkind and the risk burns -- cost them their repute and their positions as well . When such a Pan-Hellenic meeting occurred , Mr. Cuyler rose to his highest triumphs . It was perhaps a frame celluloid goods factory in Long Island City , which some soul-compelling voice had just finished describing , accoutering the grisly thing in all the garments of verbal glory . One gathered that the Guardian 's fate hung on the acceptance of this translucent risk , that it was a prize saved from the clutches of a hundred grasping competitors and brought to the counter of the Guardian like a pure white lamb to the altar of the gods .