Second only to Pell, was his whilom enemy, the former District-Attorney, now a state senator, who battled himself into Peter's reluctant admiration and friendship by his devotion and loyalty to the bills.

Peter concluded that he had not entirely done the man justice in the past.

Curiously enough, his chief antagonist was Maguire.
Peter did not give up the fight with this defeat.

His work for the bills had revealed to him the real under-currents in the legislative body, and when it adjourned, making further work in Albany only a waste of time, he availed himself of the secret knowledge that had come to him, to single out the real forces which stood behind and paid the lobby, and to interview them.

He saw the actual principals in the opposition, and spoke with utmost frankness.