Things are not as they once were." There had always been a certain negative virtue in Mr.Drake, which only his friends were able to see, and only the wisest of them to set over against his display--this, namely, that he never attempted to gain credit for what he knew he had not.

As he was not above show, I can not say he was safely above false show, for he who is capable of the one is still in danger of the other; but he was altogether above deception: that he scorned.

If, in his time of plenty he liked men to be aware of his worldly facilities, he now, in the time of his poverty, preferred that men should be aware of the bonds in which he lived.

His nature was simple, and loved to let in the daylight.

Concealment was altogether alien to him.