Whatever the future might keep in store for him of dreary, toilsome, colourless existence, the retrospect would always show him this patch of purple--a memory precious beyond all the possible results of prudence and narrow self-regard.
The little she-Cockney by his side entertained him with the flow of her chatter; it had the advantage of making him feel a travelled man.
"I didn't cross this way when I came before," he explained to her.
"From Newhaven it's a much longer voyage." "You like the sea, then ?" "I chose it because it was cheaper--that's all." "Yet you're so extravagant now," remarked Patty, with eyes that confessed admiration of this quality.
"Oh, because I am rich," he answered gaily.

"Money is nothing to me." "Are you really rich?
Eve said you weren't." "Did she ?" "I don't mean she said it in a disagreeable way.

It was last night.

She thought you were wasting your money upon us." "If I choose to waste it, why not?
Isn't there a pleasure in doing as you like ?" "Oh, of course there is," Patty assented.

"I only wish I had the chance.