Lord Chiltern for a few months had lived with him; and then there had arisen a quarrel, which he had for a time thought would dissolve his old life into ruin.

Now Lord Chiltern was again his very intimate friend.

And there had used to sit a needy money-lender whom he had been unable to banish.

Alas! alas! how soon might he now require that money-lender's services! And then he recollected how he had left these rooms to go into others, grander and more appropriate to his life when he had filled high office under the State.

Would there ever again come to him such cause for migration?
And would he again be able to load the frame of the looking-glass over the fire with countless cards from Countesses and Ministers' wives?
He had opened the oyster for himself once, though it had closed again with so sharp a snap when the point of his knife had been withdrawn.