ately loved, he would say, "Never be ashamed, my dear, to tell
people that your uncle was a wholesale draper and hosier. Your mother
was a little ashamed of it, and I had some trouble to cure her. Don't
you be so silly. People think all the more of you for owning frankly
that you or your relations have risen from the ranks, as they call it."

When he retired his wealth was colossal. Smart men would say that Bob
Cassall's name was good for a million anywhere; and indeed it was good
for two millions, and more even than that. He never felt the burden of
great riches; as soon as he was safe he seemed to change his nature, and
became the most dexterously benevolent of men. He abhorred a cadger; he
abhorred the very sight of the begging circulars which so appreciably
increase the postman's daily burden. He was a sensible reader, and, when
he heard of a traveller who was something more than a mere lion, he
would make his acquaintance in the most respectful and unobtrusive way,
and he managed to learn much. His shrewd innocence and piquant wit
pleased those whom he questioned, and as he was always willing to place
his house, horses, boats, and game, at the disposal of any traveller who
pleased him, he was reckoned rather a desirable acquaintance. His
prejudice against missions to the lower tribes was derived solely from
men who had lived and worked among the negroes, and, like all his other
prejudices, it was violently strong. He would say, "Have we not good
white men here who are capable of anything? I don't want to assist your
Polish Jew in the East, nor Quashee Nigger in Africa. Show me a plucky
fellow that is ready to work at anything for any hours, and I'll help
him. But instead of aiding our own kindly white race, you fool away
millions on semi-baboons; you send out men at L300 a year and ask them
to play at being St. Paul, and you don't convert a hundred niggers a
year--and those who are converted are often very shady customers. Your
Indian men drive about in buggies, and the 'cute natives laugh at them.
Do you know what a Bengali Baboo or a Pathan is really like? The one is
three times as clever as your missionary; the other is a manly fanatic
and won't have him at any price. You're a maritime nation, and you've
got ten thousand good British seamen out of work. Why not assist
_them_?"

So this quaint and shockingly heterodox millionaire would rave on, for
he was a most peppery old person. One dark and terrible legend is