far less to break with him. He was his own master, for some time to
come, at all events, for he had two hundred pounds in his pocket.

What nonsense do the greatest philosophers sometimes discourse, when
their topic is Self-interest! It is likely enough that self-interest
actuates _them_, and in a supreme degree. When folks are by nature wise
and prudent--or if their tastes are studious, and their vices few--or
when, above all, the brain is seasoned, and the blood moves sluggishly
in the veins, then men do act for their own advantage, and keep their
eyes fixed on the main chance. But with most of us, especially when
young, self-interest, properly so called, is often but a feather's
weight in the balance of Motive. Revenge makes it kick the beam; and
Passion; and even momentary Whim. It was one of the arguments advanced
by Christian men in favor of slavery, that no man would ill-use his
slave, because it was his own property; as though the lust of cruelty in
a brutal nature were, while it lasted, not ten times as strong as the
lust of gain. There are moments when a man is ready to part with not
only his earthly prospects, but his hopes of heaven, rather than be
balked of an immediate satisfaction: that of striking his brother to the
heart, or growing rich by one stroke of fraud, or ruining forever the
woman that loves him best; and there are many men, in no such desperate
case, whose only guide is Impulse, and whose care for the morrow is
dwarfed to nothing matched with the gratification of to-day. These are
said to have no enemies but themselves, but they have victims; and,
though not apt for plots, are often more dangerous than the most
designing knaves.

Pipe after pipe smoked Richard Yorke as he sat over the fire in the
deepening twilight, so deep in thought that it quite startled him, when,
suddenly looking up, he found that all was dark. Then he rang the bell,