Thus even the most legitimate touch of materialism was wanting in Mrs.Gould's character.

The dead man of whom she thought with tenderness (because he was Charley's father) and with some impatience (because he had been weak), must be put completely in the wrong.

Nothing else would do to keep their prosperity without a stain on its only real, on its immaterial side! Charles Gould, on his part, had been obliged to keep the idea of wealth well to the fore; but he brought it forward as a means, not as an end.
Unless the mine was good business it could not be touched.

He had to insist on that aspect of the enterprise.

It was his lever to move men who had capital.