He did so at last, buffeted his way into smooth waters, and made money largely.

It must be admitted, rather nakedly, that Christopher Newman's sole aim in life had been to make money; what he had been placed in the world for was, to his own perception, simply to wrest a fortune, the bigger the better, from defiant opportunity.

This idea completely filled his horizon and satisfied his imagination.

Upon the uses of money, upon what one might do with a life into which one had succeeded in injecting the golden stream, he had up to his thirty-fifth year very scantily reflected.

Life had been for him an open game, and he had played for high stakes.