a day, and then wash his mind of
the pursuit, as a clerk in an office washes the copies and ledgers
out of his mind, then--"

"He would never make money in that way,--and keep it."

"And therefore the whole thing is debasing. A man ceases to care
for the great interests of the world, or even to be aware of their
existence, when his whole soul is in Spanish bonds. They wanted to
make a banker of me, but I found that it would kill me."

"It would kill me, I think, if I had to confine myself to Spanish
bonds."

"You know what I mean. You at any rate can understand me, though I
fear you are too far gone to abandon the idea of making a fortune."

"I would abandon it to-morrow if I could come into a fortune ready
made. A man must at any rate eat."

"Yes;--he must eat. But I am not quite sure," said Wharton
thoughtfully, "that he need think about what he eats."

"Unless the beef is sent up without horse radish!" It had happened
that when the two men sat down to their dinner the insufficient
quantity of that vegetable supplied by the steward of the club had
been all consumed, and Wharton had complained of the grievance.

"A man has a right to that for which he has paid," said Wharton, with
mock solemnity, "and if he passes over laches of that nature without
observation he does an injury to humanity at large. I'm not going to
be caught in a trap, you know, because I like horse radish with my
beef. Well, I can't go farther out of my way, as I have a deal of
reading to do before I court my Morpheus. If you'll take my advice
you'll go straight to the governor. Whatever Emily may feel I don't
think she'll say much to encourage you unless you go about it after
that fashion. She has prim notions of her own, which perhaps are not
after all so much amiss when a man wants to marry a girl."

"God forbid that I should think that anything about your sister was
amiss!"

"I don't think there is much myself. Women are generally
superficial,--but some are honestly superficial and some dishonestly.
Emily at any rate is honest."

"Stop half a moment." Then they sauntered arm in arm down the broad
pavement leading from Pall Mall to the Duke of York's column. "I wish
I could make out your father more clearly. He is always civil to me,
but he has a cold way of looking at me which makes me think I am not
in his good books."

"He is like that to everybody."

"I never seem to get beyond the skin with him. You must have heard
him speak