It would fill a book, the history of my money-making.
The first big sum I ever was possessed of came to me at the age of
two-and-thirty, when I sold a proprietary club (the one Crowther had a
share in and which I had ultimately got into my own hands) for nine
thousand pounds; but I owed about half of this. I went on and on, and I got
into society; _that_ came through the Marlborough,--a good story, but I
mustn't tell it. At last I married--a rich woman.'
He paused, and I thought, but was not quite sure, that I heard him sigh.
'We won't talk about that either. I shall not marry a rich woman again,
that's all. In fact, I don't care for such people; my best friends, real
friends, are all more or less strugglers, and perhaps there's no harm in
saying that it gives me pleasure to help them when I've a chance. I like to
buy a picture of a poor devil artist. I like to smoke my pipe with good
fellows who never go out of their way for money's sake. All the same, it's
a good thing to be well off. But for that, now, I couldn't make the
acquaintance of such people as these at Brackley Hall. I more than half
like them. Old Armitage is a gentleman, and looks back upon generations of
gentlemen, his ancestors.
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