proceeded, as was his custom of a morning, to the gymnasium for his
daily exercise.

The gymnasium was a recent addition to the Bannister home. It had been
established as the result of a heart-to-heart talk between old John
Bannister and his doctor. The doctor spoke earnestly of nervous
prostration and stated without preamble the exact number of months
which would elapse before Mr. Bannister living his present life, would
make first-hand acquaintance with it. He insisted on a regular routine
of exercise. The gymnasium came into being, and Mr. Steve Dingle,
physical instructor at the New York Athletic Club, took up a position
in the Bannister household which he was wont to describe to his
numerous friends as a soft snap.

Certainly his hours were not long. Thirty minutes with old Mr.
Bannister and thirty minutes with Mr. Bailey between eight and nine in
the morning and his duties were over for the day. But Steve was
conscientious and checked any disposition on the part of his two
clients to shirk work with a firmness which Lora Delane Porter might
have envied.

There were moments when he positively bullied old Mr. Bannister. It
would have amazed the clerks in his Wall Street office to see the
meekness with which the old man obeyed orders. But John Bannister was a
man who liked to get his money's worth, and he knew that Steve was
giving it to the last cent.

Steve at that time was twenty-eight years old. He had abandoned an
active connection with the ring, which had begun just after his
seventeenth birthday, twelve months before his entry into the Bannister