He had returned from his short absence with a resolve to risk an attempt which was only not entirely base by virtue of the passion which inspired it, and it appeared to him that his stratagem had succeeded.

Scruples he had indeed known, but not at all of the weight they would have possessed for most men, and this not only because of his reckless determination to win by any means; his birth and breeding enabled him to accept meanness as almost a virtue in many of the relations and transactions of life.

The trickery and low cunning of the mercantile world was in his blood; it would come out when great occasion saw use for it, even in the service of love.

He believed it was leading him to success.

Certainly the first result that he aimed at was assured, and he could not imagine a subsequent obstacle.