That he is no hero compounded of virtues and perfections must be already clear.

Then WHAT is he?
A villain?
Why should we call him a villain?
Why should we be so hard upon a fellow man?
In these days our villains have ceased to exist.

Rather it would be fairer to call him an ACQUIRER.

The love of acquisition, the love of gain, is a fault common to many, and gives rise to many and many a transaction of the kind generally known as "not strictly honourable." True, such a character contains an element of ugliness, and the same reader who, on his journey through life, would sit at the board of a character of this kind, and spend a most agreeable time with him, would be the first to look at him askance if he should appear in the guise of the hero of a novel or a play.

But wise is the reader who, on meeting such a character, scans him carefully, and, instead of shrinking from him with distaste, probes him to the springs of his being.