On these terms we dissolved the partnership and in a year they
had lost the £600,000, for the slump came with a vengeance. It
saved them, however, and to-day they are earning a reasonable
income. But I have never asked them for that £600,000.



Chapter II

Bastin and Bickley


Behold me once more a man without an occupation, but now the
possessor of about £900,000. It was a very considerable fortune,
if not a large one in England; nothing like the millions of which
I had dreamed, but still enough. To make the most of it and to
be sure that it remained, I invested it very well, mostly in
large mortgages at four per cent which, if the security is good,
do not depreciate in capital value. Never again did I touch a
single speculative stock, who desired to think no more about
money. It was at this time that I bought the Fulcombe property.
It cost me about £120,000 of my capital, or with alterations,
repairs, etc., say £150,000, on which sum it may pay a net two
and a half per cent, not more.

This £3,700 odd I have always devoted to the upkeep of the
place, which is therefore in first-rate order. The rest I live
on, or save.