One of Monty's most extraordinary financial feats grew out of the
purchase of a $14,000 automobile. He blandly admitted to "Nopper"
Harrison and the two secretaries that he intended to use it to
practice with only, and that as soon as he learned how to run an
"auto" as it should be run he expected to buy a good, sensible,
durable machine for $7,000.

His staff officers frequently put their heads together to devise
ways and means of curbing Monty's reckless extravagance. They were
worried.

"He's like a sailor in port," protested Harrison. "Money is no
object if he wants a thing, and--damn it--he seems to want
everything he sees."

"It won't last long," Gardner said, reassuringly. "Like his
namesake, Monte Cristo, the world is his just now and he wants to
enjoy it."

"He wants to get rid of it, it seems to me."

Whenever they reproached Brewster about the matter he disarmed
them by saying, "Now that I've got money I mean to give my friends
a good time. Just what you'd do if you were in my place. What's
money for, anyway?"

"But this $3,000-a-plate dinner--"

"I'm going to give a dozen of them, and even then I can't pay my
just debts. For years I've been entertained at people's houses and