Now that it was his, he wanted the best possible value for it; it was the natural desire of the man to be uppermost in the bargain.

The delights of the world behind, it seemed to him that he had already drained.

The crushing of his rivals, the homage of his less successful competitors, the grosser pleasures of wine, the music-halls, and the unlimited spending of money amongst people whom he despised had long since palled upon him.

He had a keen, strong desire to escape once and for ever from his surroundings.

He lounged along, smoking a large cigar, keen-eyed and observant, laying up for himself a store of impressions, unconsciously irritated at every step by a sense of ostracism, of being in some indefinable manner without kinship and wholly apart from this world, in which it seemed natural now that he should find some place.