n I once knew well; I think
of them sometimes, and wish I didn't--who any time during half their
life might have retired on twenty thousand a year. If I were to go to
any one of them, and settle an annuity of a hundred a year upon him, the
moment my back was turned he'd sell it out and totter up to Threadneedle
Street with the proceeds. It's in our blood. I shall gamble on my
death-bed, die with the tape in my hand."

He kicked the fire into a blaze. A roaring flame made the room light
again.

"But that won't be just yet awhile," he laughed, "and before it does,
I'll be the richest man in Europe. I keep my head cool--that's the
great secret." Leaning over towards me, he sunk his voice to a whisper,
"Drink, Paul--so many of them drink. They get worried; fifty things
dancing round and round at the same time in their heads. Fifty questions
to be answered in five minutes. Tick, tick, tick, taps the little devil
at their elbow. This going down, that going up. Rumor of this, report
of that. A fortune to be lost here, a fortune to be snatched there.
Everything in a whirl! Tick, tick, tick, like nails into a coffin. God!
for five minutes' peace to think. Shut the door, turn the key. Out comes
the bottle. That's the end. All right so long as you keep away from
that. Cool, quick brain, clear judgment--that's the secret."

"But is it worth it all?" I suggested. "Surely you have enough?"

"It means power, Paul." He slapped his trousers pocket, making the
handful of gold and silver he always carried there jingle musically. "It
is this that rules the world. My children shall be big pots, hobnob
with kings and princes, slap them on the back and call them by their
Christian names, be kings themselves--why not? It's happened before.
My children, the children of old Noel Hasluck, son of a Whitechapel
butcher! Here's my pedigree!" Again be slapped his tuneful pocket.
"It's an older one than theirs! It's coming into its own at last! It's
money--we men of money--that are the true kings now. It's our family
that rules the world--the great money family; I mean to be its head."

The blaze died out, leaving the room almost in darkness, and for awhile
we sat in silence.

"Quiet, isn't it?" said old Hasluck, raising his head.

The settling of the falling embers was the only sound about us.

"Guess we'll always be like this, now," continued old Hasluck. "Old
woman goes to bed, you see, immediately after dinner. It used to be
different whe