! Here is Alice--mine! Here is Europe, that I have looked at as
I would heaven, beyond reach in this life! _Now_ we will go to work; and
let Cuyp, Claude, and the rest of them, look out for their laurels!"

"Softly, my boy; you squeeze like a cider-press. But how came the old
miser to give you this?"

"My father was his partner; he was thought to be worth a handsome sum
while he lived,--but at his death, though Bullion and another junior
went on with the business, there was nothing left for us. My mother died
poor. I am the only child living. This, I suppose, is the return for the
property that Bullion wrongfully detained,--with compound interest, too,
I should say. Let us not speak ill of the dead. He has made restitution
and squared the books; I hope the correction has been made above."

"How lucky for you that Bullion was your banker! Suppose you had grown
up with the expectation of having this money, what would you have
been good for? You would have run all to patent-leather boots, silky
moustaches, and black-tan terriers. Your struggles have developed your
muscles, metaphorically speaking, and made a man of you."

"Two sides to that question. It is true, luxury might have spoiled me,
for I am accessible to such influences; but, on the other hand, I should
have escaped some painful things. No one who has not been poor can
understand me, can know the wounds which a sensitive man must receive as
he is working his way up in the world,--wounds that leave lasting scars,
too. I am conscious of certain feelings, most discreditable, if I were
to avow them, which have been cultivated in me, and which will probably
cling to me all my days. What I have gained in hardiness I have
gained as the smith gains his strength, at the expense of symmetry,
sensibility, and grace."

"Nonsense, you mimosa! Don't curl up your leaves before you are
touched."

"But if I am a sensitive-plant, as you say, I can't help it; if I were a
burdock, I might."

"You'll get over that. By-the-by, you may as well tell Alice. I know
you will be uneasy; go, go,--but come back soon. It is jolly that she
accepted you poor; if the report had got abroad, you might have thought
she was influenced by golden reasons."

"That's because you don't know her, my cynical friend. She is incapable
of mercenary motives."

"'What female heart can gold despise?
What cat's averse to fish?'"

"Well, for an hour, good-bye. Have a good fire and the pipes ready."