It is on themselves that prodigals spend most.

And as Newcome had no personal extravagances, and the smallest selfish wants; could live almost as frugally as a Hindoo; kept his horses not to race but to ride; wore his old clothes and uniforms until they were the laughter of his regiment; did not care for show, and had no longer an extravagant wife; he managed to lay by considerably out of his liberal allowances, and to find himself and Clive growing richer every year.
"When Clive has had five or six years at school"-- that was his scheme--"he will be a fine scholar, and have at least as much classical learning as a gentleman in the world need possess.

Then I will go to England, and we will pass three or four years together, in which he will learn to be intimate with me, and, I hope, to like me.

I shall be his pupil for Latin and Greek, and try and make up for lost time.

I know there is nothing like a knowledge of the classics to give a man good breeding--Ingenuas didicisse fideliter artes emollunt mores, nec sinuisse feros.