opez. "It depends upon whether a man wants to make a small income or
a large fortune." He still held the bill as though he were going to
fold it up again, and the importance of it was so present to Sexty's
mind that he could hardly digest the argument about the steady
business. "I own that I am not satisfied with the former," continued
Lopez, "and that I go in for the fortune." As he spoke he tore the
bill into three or four bits, apparently without thinking of it, and
let the fragments fall upon the floor. It was as though a mountain
had been taken off Sexty's bosom. He felt almost inclined to send out
for a bottle of champagne on the moment, and the arguments of his
friend rang in his ears with quite a different sound. The allurements
of a steady income paled before his eyes, and he too began to tell
himself, as he had often told himself before, that if he would only
keep his eyes open and his heart high there was no reason why he too
should not become a city millionaire. But on that occasion Lopez left
him soon, without saying very much about his favourite speculation.
In a few days, however, the same matter was brought before Sexty's
eyes from another direction. He learned from a side wind that the
house of Hunky and Sons was concerned largely in this business,--or
at any rate he thought that he had so learned. The ease with which
Lopez had destroyed that bill six weeks before it was due had had
great effect upon him. Those arguments about a large fortune or a
small income still clung to him. Lopez had come to him about the
business in the first instance, but it was now necessary that he
should go to Lopez. He was, however, very cautious. He managed to
happen to meet Lopez in the street, and introduced the subject in his
own slap-dash, aery manner,--the result of which was, that he had
gone rather deep into two or three American mines before the end of
July. But he had already made some money out of them, and, though he
would find himself sometimes trembling before he had taken his daily
allowance of port wine and brandy-and-water, still he was buoyant,
and hopeful of living in a park, with a palace at the West End,
and a seat in Parliament. Knowing also, as he did, that his friend
Lopez was intimate with the Duchess of Omnium, he had much immediate
satisfaction in the intimacy which these relations created. He was
getting in the thin edge of the wedge, and would calculate as he went
home to Ponder's End how long it