Look at the position, now.

I suppose I may call myself a successful man; well on the way to success, at all events.

Unless fortune plays me a dirty trick, I ought soon to be making my three or four thousand a year; and there's the possibility of double that.

Think what that means, in the way of opportunity.

Once or twice, when I was going to see the Crosses, I've pulled myself up and asked what the deuce I was doing--but I went all the same.