It was the common saying that the Vanderpoels were possessed of a money-making spell.

Their spell lay in their entire mental and physical absorption in one idea.

Their peculiarity was not so much that they wished to be rich as that Nature itself impelled them to collect wealth as the load-stone draws towards it iron.

Having possessed nothing, they became rich, having become rich they became richer, having founded their fortunes on small schemes, they increased them by enormous ones.

In time they attained that omnipotence of wealth which it would seem no circumstance can control or limit.