“Brought up to it! What do you mean?” asked Mr. Black. “Do you think I was brought up to all the trades I have made money by? What do you think I started in the world with? A plain commercial education, a mother and a lame sister to keep, and twenty pounds. I never served my time; I never had the chance of learning a business like Raidsford; I was always dragged back by having those two poor useless women to keep; and yet, still, see what I have done!” “But you began early?” suggested Arthur. “If I had not begun early, I should have begun late,” was the reply. “And then I am tied to this place.” “No, you are not,” was the reply. “But you are like all men possessed of a small income—afraid of losing it. A man who begins with nothing has a far better chance of success than his neighbour, who starts on five or six hundred.” “Besides, I ought to have begun long ago,” persisted Arthur. “Better late than never,” quoted Mr. Black. “I tell you what it is now, Dudley, as long as we have got on this subject, let us talk about it. You want to make money, don’t you?” “The question is scarcely necessary,” answered Squire Dudley, with a faint smile. “Do you chance to know any man who does not?” “Yes,” was the ready reply. “I know several who think themselves so deucedly safe, and comfortable, and secure, and all the rest of it, that they would not take a share in Rothschild’s, if it were offered to them for an old song. There is your friend Raidsford, for instance.” “Oh! he’s no friend of mine,” corrected Arthur. “Well, he is a case in point, at any rate. Lord Kemms does not consider our new company beneath his consideration, at any rate, and what is worth his attention ought not to be below that of a twopenny-halfpenny contractor, though that contractor may think there is nobody like Compton Raidsford, Esquire, in the world.” “You do not mean to say there is a likelihood of Lord Kemms going into your company?” said Arthur, eagerly. “A likelihood? there is a certainty,” was the repay. “I have set my heart on getting him, and I will get him, no matter what it costs me to do so. But if I were to go to Compton Raidsford——” “You will not go, though,” interrupted Squire Dudley. “Trust me,” answered the promoter. “I was only instancing him as one of the men who do not want to make money. He is so puffed up with his park, and his deer, and his carriages, and his riding horses, and the infernal fuss that is made about him, it would be, ‘No, thank you, Mr. Black. I have one business, and that is enough for me. I find it as much as I can manage. _Good_ morning!’ But you are differently situated, Dudley. You, like Lord Kemms, could do with a larger balance at your banker’s.” “You amaze me about Lord Kemms,” said Arthur, thoughtfully.