To intermeddle at all in other people's concerns was averse to his whole theory of existence.

But to intermeddle, and not very creditably, and out of the most disinterested motives of benevolence and expediency, and then to fail! All this was nothing short of degrading.

He dined that night at his club, to which Drake had been elected, and lay in wait for him.
Drake, however, did not appear, and at ten o'clock Fielding went round to his rooms.
Drake was living in chambers on the Embankment, a little to the west of Hungerford Bridge.

As he was shown into the room, Fielding could not help noticing the plainness of its furniture and adornment.

The chairs were covered with a cheap red cretonne; there was an armchair or two with the high seat and long elbows, which seemed to have gone astray from a Peckham drawing-room; an ormolu clock under a glass shade ornamented the overmantel, and in the way of literature there was one book in the room--Prescott's _Conquest of Peru_--and a copy of the _Times_.
Drake was seated at the table engaged in the study of a map of Matanga.
'Come in!' he said cordially.