“ You never got a true feeling of the deliciousness of having money—no, not even from seeing half your acquaintances go without it. But, for me! I am just bursting as from darkness into the broad blaze of sunshine—from bondage into freedom uncontrolled—from childish helplessness, into the strength and power of a giant! My quarrel always with life was, that a man could not work his way into a house in Grosvenor Square, until a narrower house might serve his desires, and be more than sufficient for his necessities. ”

“ A wild extravagance keeps him constantly poor; and he has not brains enough to make him timid; for, take successful speculators, with the odds ten to one against them generally, and you will find them coarse-minded, obtuse men—acute intellect would see too clearly the chance of overthrow. In spite of all Sir Walter’s exertion, after the first eight glasses, my mere listening became sufficient to draw him out. ”

“ The moment they ask my decision, I shall give it against them; and yet, before then, I will have gained all they sought to withhold from me. This is not a world, Robert, in which a man can live by the use of candor, or of liberal principle; and he who is wise will fall into its spirit, and acquire a taste for hollow-heartedness and selfish feeling. To have one’s “opinions” always flying out against those of every body else—one’s heart pinned upon one’s sleeve—is it not to fight too much at a disadvantage? ”

“ It was the borough of Medhurst, it seems, that formed the grand link between my late grandfather and the people at the castle.
He always gave up the parliamentary interests; but our property is suspected of carrying a majority. Major Beauvoir sits for Medhurst; Sir Walter is one of the members for the county. I was to have been played upon by these good folks as they pleased, and slighted as they pleased into the bargain. But my business-like movements have struck them with alarm. A general election approaches, and, though they are rich, they must not lose Medhurst. ”

“ Never was I so frightened before in all my life—which I attribute entirely to my having lately become “monied.” In the onset of the affair, a trifle of a sea took us; beat in all the quarter boards on our weather side; and carried away six water casks, and four pigs, besides the cook-house, the cook in it, and the binnacle. It was night, dark as pitch, and raining. So black, that the man at the helm could not have seen shore if his bowsprit-end had run against it. ”

“ And then, on a sudden, by the flashes of lightning half a minute long—the whole hopeless, interminable prospect of white foaming water opened before you; with the pigs, and the casks, and the hen-coops, each riding off upon a separate wave as big as Westminster Abbey.
Beggary, time out of mind, has been valiant. He must be brave (perforce) who has no breeches; but the holder of exchequer bills hates instinctively to find himself one moment trespassing upon the moon—flying upwards to impugn the dog-star, as if out of a swing, nine times as high as the gibbet Haman was hanged upon ”

“ But, for the ton, I had carte blanche, as being a foreigner; and, for the silence, you don’t very easily awe any man where he feels that circumstances make him your master. I talked, if no one else did; and he who talks prepense, may even “talk” with safety. With Sir Walter Beauvoir, I spoke of property and interests, in a way that made him very anxiously attend to me. ”

“ So I saddled at once, finding my cavalry sain et sauf, (which I had shipped from Figuera a week before me,) and rode at a round rate through Cornwall, Devonshire, and Somerset, purposing, as “greatness” was “thrust upon me,” to lose no time in taking possession of it; but, when I got to Bath, an idea struck me—it was for the first time—that Sir Walter Beauvoir— (my grandfather’s executor) —that it might not be pleasant, under all “existing circumstances,” for me to have to introduce myself to the worthy baronet. ”

“ How many a woman have I adored—and fled from—lest I might make her estate as desperate as my own! How many a man, whom I could have trampled, have I suffered to insult over me, when those I loved might have been injured by my triumph! ”

“ I have never complained of the abuse of strength by others; let none complain of its reasonable exercise by me. I will ask no account for what has been done in the past, but the right shall be mine to do now for the future. I will seek for no combat with any man alive ”

“ MEDHURST, 1816. THANKS for your congratulations; and take mine in return, on your having escaped free with life, and, what is more important still, without disfigurement. Really, to see a man, in these times, go through ten years’ service untouched—Talavera, Busaco, Salamanca, and Waterloo ”

“ Fight always at once, if possible, where you desire to be quiet—you are sure of peace, after men know that there is nothing to he got by going to war with you. These Beauvoirs are of your gens de coterie—your people of the “real caste” and “tone”— (that is, your people who, singly, would be hunted down as owls and bedlamites; but who, as a “set,” have managed to make their joint-stock impudence imposing.) I suspected the reception that I should meet from them; and I waited upon good Sir Walter without my scabbard. ”

“ Here lies no failure; for, on the point, there is no power in the will of the proposing individual; the obstacle, which is insurmountable, is a parcel of the very system under which we breathe. The precise qualities which procure a man offers of assistance, are those (nine times in ten) he would sacrifice by accepting it. ”

“ You laugh—but I can’t come back to the army, after six years’ desertion, to face your Waterloo reputation upon a “lady-peace” establishment. And a scat in Parliament gives a man a semblance of pursuits in life, which (where no trouble attaches) is convenient. ”

“ A lapse of intercourse is not necessarily a breach of friendship; and, if it were, the act that made the lapse was mine. “Man proposes,” as somebody says, “and God disposes;”—few sublunary resolves can stand against the force of circumstances. ”

“ Why, you see, a man’s very vanity, in a situation like this, leaves him no choice but to be cut up and devoured. From the moment that I listened to a thought of safety, I ceased to be the hero that the lady took me for. I should have been absolutely an impostor if I had accepted her offer ”

“ Dupuis had told me this long election story, “in confidence,”—a confidence to which I just trusted so far, as not to give him the slightest hint how I meant to act upon it in return—though I was a “rough rider,” and had a horse that “neighed,” I received a morning call from Sir Walter, which ended (sorely against his will) in an invitation to dine at Beauvoir Castle.
If I could make head against the world when I was naked and pennyless, I can hardly fear to do so now. You know me, and know how I value the opinion of such people as these ”

“ In business all men are equal. The casting of an account knows no distinction of persons. But remember, that he (whoever he is) stands a babbler, convict, who utters one word except to state the sum total of it. ”

“ Man, even where he is to be a slave and a fool, finds a satisfaction in being a slave and a fool in his own way. One gentleman conceits to die in battle; another has a fancy to pass in his bed. Many part by corrosive sublimate and laudanum, who would live on if they were bound to use the knife. ”

“ As the first goose might cackle, ten to one the whole flock would follow. This Beauvoir bidding was an opportunity to begin the struggle with advantage.
I rode to the castle on horseback, (this took place yesterday,) and arrived as nearly as possible at the last moment; having declined using one of Sir Walter’s carriages, “until my own could be put in order.” From the very entry of the avenue, I saw what was to be my reception—the evening was tempting, but the windows and balconies were deserted. ”

“ A man may be as stout as Hercules, and yet not care to be eaten by cetaceous fishes. Did you never observe that the people who bring themselves to subaqueous terminations in and about London, almost always choose to conclude in something like smooth water? ”

“ Dupuis, wishing to be familiar, but not quite knowing how to compass it, on the other; José behind, and the two keepers taking long shots, (in the way of comprehension,) at his English; and the folks of the village taking off their hats as we passed—to the whole of which I returned a grave courtesy; but as though it disturbed my own reflections, rather than otherwise.
I shall be in the commission of the peace, Robert, within these six months, and set people in the stocks! The five hundred pound legacy goes to repair “the church,” as the joint gift of Sir Walter Beauvoir and myself. ”

“ You must be burned—there is no help for it—if you wish to be a martyr. You must die (though it is unpleasant) before your name can be emblazoned on your tomb. I desire to wrong no man’s feeling; but the course you complain of is the course which I should take again. Assistance from “friendship” is always bought dearly, and turns out generally to be mood lbr nothing when you have it. ”

“ There are a description of persons, as we all find out sometimes, whom you can hardly meet, even in the stage-coach, without looking for a quarrel with them. The slightest degree of intercourse seems to make the event quite certain ”

“ Few people will give away, even their money, to a crouching coward—a dependant—a hanger-on; and yet what else than these can he be who consents to live upon the bounty of another? The romantic generosity of Mrs. ”