Sir Thomas Harrington. My father secured his seat in Parliament, and
he is sure to allow us to enter his house. We shall have every facility
there for acquiring a rapid practical knowledge of banking and finance.
I told father it was that or the colonies. I have no idea of being
'only Lord Francis's brother.'"

"Money is the axle on which the world turns, George. When you and I
have it we can buy titles--if we want them."

The fever of fortune-making had seized both young men. They were
ambitious in the most personal sense of the word. George's position
as younger son constantly mortified him. He had had dreams of obtaining
honor both as a scholar and a soldier, but he had satisfied himself
that for one career he had not the mental ability, and for the other
neither the physical courage nor endurance necessary. Of mere rank
he was not envious. He had lived among noble men, and familiarity had
bred its usual consequence. But he did want money. He fully recognized
that gold entered every earthly gate, and he felt within himself the
capacity for its acquirement. He had also precedents for this
determination which seemed to justify it. The Duke of Norham's
younger son had a share in an immense brewery and wielded a power far
beyond that of his elder brother, who was simply waiting for a dukedom.
Lord Egremont, a younger son of the Earl of Soho, controlled large
amounts of railway stock, and it was said held a mortgage on the family
castle. To prove to his father and mother that no law of primogeniture
could disinherit him, appeared to George Eltham an object worth
striving for.

With these thoughts simmering in his heart he met Antony Hallam at
Oxford. They speedily became friends. Antony wanted money also. But