How was it?
I forget now! A concession repudiated, a bank failure, a big slump--what does it matter?
The money was gone, and I was simply myself again, Scarlett Trent, a labourer, penniless and of no account." "It must have been an odd sensation," she said thoughtfully.
"I will tell you what it made me realise," he said.

"I am drifting into a dangerous position.

I am linking myself to a little world to whom, personally, I am as nothing and less than nothing.

I am tolerated for my belongings! If by any chance I were to lose these, what would become of me ?" "You are a man," she said, looking at him earnestly; "you have the nerve and wits of a man, what you have done before you might do again." "In the meantime I should be ostracised." "By a good many people, no doubt." He held his peace for a time, and ate and drank what was set before him.
He was conscious that his was scarcely a dinner-table manner.

He was too eager, too deeply in earnest.