The early obstacle to Mr.Brock's success was want of conduct simply.

Drink, women, play--how many a brave fellow have they ruined!--had pulled Brock down as often as his merit had carried him up.

When a man's passion for play has brought him to be a scoundrel, it at once ceases to be hurtful to him in a worldly point of view; he cheats, and wins.

It is only for the idle and luxurious that women retain their fascinations to a very late period; and Brock's passions had been whipped out of him in Virginia; where much ill-health, ill-treatment, hard labour, and hard food, speedily put an end to them.
He forgot there even how to drink; rum or wine made this poor declining gentleman so ill that he could indulge in them no longer; and so his three vices were cured.
Had he been ambitious, there is little doubt but that Mr.Brock, on his return from transportation, might have risen in the world; but he was old and a philosopher: he did not care about rising.

Living was cheaper in those days, and interest for money higher: when he had amassed about six hundred pounds, he purchased an annuity of seventy-two pounds, and gave out--why should he not ?--that he had the capital as well as the interest.