Maddened with success, spurning all thought of
concealment, with shocking exactness he entered into every detail of the
contest, every incident in the appalling history. The low cunning and
miserable privation that accumulated the first paltry hundreds, the
trickery that made them thousands, the heartless sacrifice of
self-respect that doubled and trebled the swelling store, were gloated
over with a grin of delight. Transactions imbued with a depravity that
made me shudder, were narrated with a chuckle; chicaneries of a depth
and maliciousness positively devilish, were touched with a smirk. For
_this_ he had lied and cheated; for _this_ his wretched body grew lean
for want of food; for _this_ all the world loathed him. In _his_ youth
poverty _crushed_ him; but his little girl, away at school, never knew
the meaning of the word. Widows went portionless, but _she_ did not
want; orphans starved, _her_ platter was always full. _He_ had been
spattered by the coaches of the rich; but now his chariot, and _her_
chariot, would take a drive. They had called him Beast; but _now_ they
called him _gentleman_.

The hundreds who drank his wine and trifled with his sweets called him
gentleman, and hundreds more were ready to go down on their knees to his
own flesh and blood. Now was the time to enjoy, now the day of
happiness. Money was a drug; in his abundance, he could never want. He
had love, grandeur, troops of friends; _now_ he would live a monarch.
Flushed with victory, his eyes blazed, his voice rang clear and loud in
its exultation, and his lank form swelled with defiance. Springing to
his feet, and clutching up a decanter, he waved it wildly around his
head, and, challenging God or man to mar such peace, shivered it on the
floor.

Wonder-stricken at the intensity of his vulgarity, and shocked at the
sacrilege, I left; and from that moment Hardy Gripstone became a study.
Every step in his tortuous course, every phase of his ostentation, every
enormity on good taste, was followed with ceaseless vigilance. Excesses
that would have startled the most thoughtless were pursued with restless
activity; absurdities that drew forth a shout of ridicule were committed
with provoking good humor. No freak seemed exuberant, no folly
preposterous, no extremity extravagance. The joy of paternity, sinking
deep into his nature, made every peculiarity more glaringly apparent.
Money had been his idol, its accumulation the summit of his ambition;