s present once at a dinner given by a millionaire newspaper
proprietor to a crowd of journalists, on the occasion of the founding
of a new magazine. The millionaire ate little, spoke little, and sat
throughout the feast with an anxious cloud upon his brow. I recognised
the same furtive look of apprehension in his eyes that I had seen in
the eyes of my stock-broking friend long before. As I glanced round
the room I found myself able to pick out all the men of wealth by that
same look. It would seem that the anxieties of getting money only
beget the more torturing anxiety of how to keep it. That, I am
persuaded, was the dominant thought of my millionaire host throughout
the meal; he knew the fear and fever of the gambler risking an enormous
stake, the agitation of the soldier on the eve of a battle, in which
victory is highly problematical. But that crowd of hungry journalists,
how they did eat! What laughter sat on those boyish faces, what zest
of life, what capacity of pleasure! There was not one of them whose
daily bread was not precarious; not one perhaps who had a decent
balance at the bank; yet they were so gay, so resolutely cheerful, so
frankly interested in life and in themselves, that I could fancy those
gloomy eyes at the head of the table watched them with a sort of envy,
I think there must be something fatal to gaiety in the mere
responsibilities of wealth; I am sure that there is something
corrupting in the labours of its acquisition. I think I had rather be
a vagrant, with a crust in my knapsack, a blue sky above me, and the
adventurous road before me, than look upon the world with a pair of
eyes so laughterless as his who was our host that night.

Again I protest that I make no railing accusation against wealth in
itself. I am so far convinced of the truly beneficent utilities of
wealth, that I would quite willingly take the risks of a moderate
competence, should any one be disposed to make experiment with my
virtues. There is some magnanimity in this offer, for I can no more
foretell the effects of the bacillus of wealth upon my moral nature,
than can the physician who offers his body for inoculation with the
germ of some dire disease that science may be served. It argues some
lack of imagination among millionaires that it has occurred to no one
of the tribe to endow a man instead of an institution, if it were only
by way of change. It would at least prove an interesting experiment,
and it wo