"I must own," said Jack, "that it _is_ hard, after having waited so long, to lose a chance which may not occur again for years; but what can I do? You see I haven't got the money; so I suppose I must just bend to my luck, and wait in patience for my company until my head is as bare as a billiard-ball!" "But, Jack," said I, "excuse me for making the remark--but won't your uncle, Mr Pettigrew, assist you?" "Not the slightest chance of it." "You surprise me," said I; "I am very sorry to hear you say so. I always understood that you were a prime favourite of his." "So I was; and so, perhaps, I am," replied Wilkinson; "but that don't alter the matter." "Why, surely," said I, "if he is inclined to help you at all, he will not be backward at a time like this. I am afraid, Jack, you allow your modesty to wrong you." "I shall permit my modesty," said Jack, "to take no such impertinent liberty. But I see you don't know my uncle Peter." "I have not that pleasure, certainly; but he bears the character of a good honest fellow, and everybody believes that you are to be his heir." "That may be, or may not, according to circumstances," said Wilkinson. "You are quite right as to his character, which I would advise no one to challenge in my presence; for, though I should never get another stiver from him, or see a farthing of his property, I am bound to acknowledge that he has acted towards me in the most generous manner. But I repeat that you don't understand my uncle." "Nor ever shall," said I, "unless you condescend to enlighten me." "Well, then, listen. Old Peter would be a regular trump, but for one besetting foible. He cannot resist a crotchet. The more palpably absurd and idiotical any scheme may be, the more eagerly he adopts it; nay, unless it _is_ absurd and idiotical, such as no man of common sense would listen to for a moment, he will have nothing to say to it. He is quite shrewd enough with regard to commercial matters. During the railway mania, he is supposed to have doubled his capital. Never having had any faith in the stability of the system, he sold out just at the right moment, alleging that it was full time to do so, when Sir Robert Peel introduced a bill giving the Government the right of purchasing any line when its dividends amounted to ten per cent. The result proved that he was correct." "It did, undoubtedly. But surely that is no evidence of his extreme tendency to be led astray by crotchets?" "Quite the reverse: the scheme was not sufficiently absurd for him. Besides, I must tell you, that in pure commercial matters it would be very difficult to overreach or deceive my uncle. He has a clear eye for pounds, shillings, and pence--principal and interest--and can look very well after himself when his purse is directly assailed. His real weakness lies in sentiment." "Not, I trust, towards the feminine gender? That might be awkward for you in a gentleman of his years!"