To be with this girl was to love her; and whither this pleasurable idleness would lead him he was neither blind nor self-deceiving.

But with the semi-humorous recklessness which was the leaven of his success, he thrust prudence behind him and stuck to the primrose path.
He had played with fire before, but never had the coals burned so brightly.

He did not say that she was above him; mentally and by birth they were equals; simply, he was compelled to admit of the truth that she was beyond him.

Money.

That was the obstacle.