for four, or six, or even eight hours 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 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.