Crosbie had his opinion on things,--on politics, on religion, on the philanthropic tendencies of the age, and had read something here and there as he formed his opinion.

Perhaps he might have done better in the world had he not been placed so early in life in that Whitehall public office.

There was that in him which might have earned better bread for him in an open profession.
But in that matter of his bread the fate of Adolphus Crosbie had by this time been decided for him, and he had reconciled himself to fate that was now inexorable.

Some very slight patrimony, a hundred a year or so, had fallen to his share.

Beyond that he had his salary from his office, and nothing else; and on his income, thus made up, he had lived as a bachelor in London, enjoying all that London could give him as a man in moderately easy circumstances, and looking forward to no costly luxuries,--such as a wife, a house of his own, or a stable full of horses.