"Don't be afraid of
spending a little money," wrote the great man. "Make your up-town
headquarters as attractive as may be, and arrange matters with Ackerton
so that your office will not be burdened with too much of the routine
legal work. A successful legal representative will be a good mixer--as I
am sure you are--and will extend the circle of his acquaintance as
rapidly and as far as possible. Your appointment will be fully justified
when you have made your up-town office a place where the good citizens
of the capital and the State can drop in for a cordial word with the
company's spokesman."
Acting upon this suggestion, Blount opened the Temple Court headquarters
at once and threw himself energetically into the indicated field.
Ackerton, a technical expert with a needle-like mind and the State code
at his fingers'-ends, was left in charge of the working offices in the
railroad building, with instructions to apply to his chief only when he
needed specific advice.
At the up-town headquarters, Blount gave himself wholly to the pleasant
task of making friends. With a good store of introductions upon which to
make a beginning, and with the open-handed, whole-souled _camaraderie_
of the West to help, the list of acquaintances grew with amazing
rapidity. For the three or four weeks after Mrs. Blount had whisked the
Annerses away to Wartrace Hall and the habitat of the Megalosauridae, the
newly appointed "social secretary" for the railroad, as Honoria had
dubbed him, met all comers joyously and accepted all invitations, never
inquiring whether they were extended to his father's son, to the
railroad company's legal chief, or to Evan Blount in his proper person.
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