HIS real friend, in all the business, was to have been his own mind, with which nobody had put him in relation.

He had knocked at the door of that essentially private house, and his call, in truth, had not been immediately answered; so that when, after waiting and coming back, he had at last got in, it was, twirling his hat, as an embarrassed stranger, or, trying his keys, as a thief at night.

He had gained confidence only with time, but when he had taken real possession of the place it had been never again to come away.

All of which success represented, it must be allowed, his one principle of pride.

Pride in the mere original spring, pride in his money, would have been pride in something that had come, in comparison, so easily.