upward path to tread. His appearance
propitiated me less after he had passed through the hands of his man
Tollingby, but I had again surrendered the lead to him. As to the risk
of proceedings being taken against him, he laughed scornfully at the
suggestion. 'They dare not. The more I dare, the less dare they.' Again
I listened to his curious roundabout reasoning, which dragged humour at
its heels like a comical cur, proclaiming itself imposingly, in spite
of the mongrel's barking, to be prudence and common sense. Could I
deny that I owed him gratitude for the things I cherished most?--for
my acquaintance with Ottilia?--for his services in Germany?--for the
prospect of my elevation in England? I could not; and I tried hard to
be recklessly grateful. As to money, he reiterated that he could put
his hand on it to satisfy the squire on the day of accounts: for the
present, we must borrow. His argument upon borrowing--which I knew well,
and wondered that I did not at the outset disperse with a breath of
contempt--gained on me singularly when reviewed under the light of my
immediate interests: it ran thus:--We have a rich or a barren future,
just as we conceive it. The art of generalship in life consists in
gathering your scattered supplies to suit a momentous occasion; and it
is the future which is chiefly in debt to us, and adjures us for its
sake to fight the fight and conquer. That man is vile and fit to be
trampled on who cannot count his future in gold and victory. If, as we
find, we are always in debt to the past, we should determine that the
future is in our debt, and draw on it. Why let our future lie idle while
we need succour? For instance, to-morrow I am to have what saves my
reputation in the battle to-day; shall I not take it at once? The
military commander who acts on that principle overcomes his adversary to
a certainty.

'You, Richie, the member for this borough of Chippenden, have won solid
ground. I guarantee it to you. And you go straight from the hustings,
or the first taste of parliamentary benches, to Sarkeld: you take your
grandad's proposition to Prince Ernest: you bring back the prince's
acceptance to the squire. Can you hope to have a princess without a
battle for her?' More and much more in this strain, until--for he could
read me and most human beings swiftly on the surface, notwithstanding
the pressure of his fancifulness--he perceived that talking influenced
me far less than activity, and so af