ce. Rodney,
inheriting the thrift of his ancestors, had pushed out from his home,
adapting this thrift to the modern methods of turning it to account. He
had brought also to the city the stamina of three generations of plain
living--a splendid capital, by which the city is constantly reinforced,
and which one generation does not exhaust, except by the aid of extreme
dissipation. With sound health, good ability, and fair education, he had
the cheerful temperament which makes friends, and does not allow their
misfortunes to injure his career. Generous by impulse, he would rather
do a favor than not, and yet he would be likely to let nothing interfere
with any object he had in view for himself. Inheriting a conventional
respect for religion and morality, he was not so bigoted as to rebuke
the gayety of a convivial company, nor so intractable as to make him an
uncomfortable associate in any scheme, according to the modern notions
of business, that promised profit. His engaging manner made him popular,
and his good-natured adroitness made him successful. If his early
experience of life caused him to be cynical, he was not bitterly so; his
cynicism was of the tolerant sort that does not condemn the world and
withdraw from it, but courts it and makes the most of it, lowering his
private opinion of men in proportion as he is successful in the game he
plays with them. At this period I could see that he had determined to be
successful, and that he had not determined to be unscrupulous. He would
only drift with the tide that made for fortune. He enjoyed the world--a
sufficient reason why the world should like him. His business morality
was gauged by what other people do in similar circumstances. In short,
he was a product of the period since the civil war closed, that great
upheaval of patriotic feeling and sacrifice, which ended in so much
expansion and so many opportunities. If he had remained in New Hampshire
he would probably have been a successful politician, successful not only
in keeping in place, but in teaching younger aspirants that serving
the country is a very good way to the attainment of luxury and the
consideration that money brings. But having chosen the law as a
stepping-stone to the lobby, to speculation, and the manipulation of
chances, he had a poor opinion of politics and of politicians. His
success thus far, though considerable, had not been sufficient to create
for him powerful enemies, so that he may be said