He had done enough to make his friend the warden miserable for life, and had then backed out just when the success of his project was sufficient to make the question one of real interest.

How weakly he had managed his business! he had already done the harm, and then stayed his hand when the good which he had in view was to be commenced.

How delightful would it have been to have employed all his energy in such a cause,--to have been backed by _The Jupiter_, and written up to by two of the most popular authors of the day! The idea opened a view into the very world in which he wished to live.

To what might it not have given rise?
what delightful intimacies,--what public praise,--to what Athenian banquets and rich flavour of Attic salt?
This, however, was now past hope.

He had pledged himself to abandon the cause; and could he have forgotten the pledge, he had gone too far to retreat.