The event of to-day he knew to be the culmination of a success as rapid as it had been surprising.

He was a millionaire.

This deal to-day, in which he had held his own against the shrewdest and most astute men of the great city, had more than doubled his already large fortune.

A few years ago he had landed in England friendless and unknown, to-day he had stepped out from even amongst the chosen few and had planted his feet in the higher lands whither the faces of all men are turned.

With a grim smile upon his lips, he recalled one by one the various enterprises into which he had entered, the courage with which he had forced them through, the solid strength with which he had thrust weaker men to the wall and had risen a little higher towards his goal upon the wreck of their fortunes.