'I'll tell you what it is, Lopez,' said Wharton, as they strolled out of the club together, a little after ten o'clock, 'the men of the present day won't give themselves the trouble to occupy their minds with matters which have, or should have, real interest.
Pope knew all about when he said that "The proper study of mankind is man." But people don't read Pope now, or if they do they don't take the trouble to understand him.'
'Men are too busy making money, my dear fellow.'
'That's just it.Money's a very nice thing.'
'Very nice,' said Lopez.
'But the search after it is debasing.If a man could make money for four, or six, or even eight hours a day, and then wash his mind of the pursuit, as a clerk in an office washes the copies and ledgers out of his mind, then--'
'He would never make money in that way--and keep it.'
'And therefore the whole thing is debasing.A man ceases to care for the great interests of the world, or even to be aware of their existence, when his whole soul is in Spanish bonds.They wanted to make a banker of me, but I found that it would kill me.'
'It would kill me, I think if I had to confine myself to Spanish bonds.'
'You know what I mean.You at any rate understand me, though Ifear you are too far gone to abandon the idea of making a fortune.'
'I would abandon it to-morrow if I could come into a fortune ready made.A man must at any rate eat.'
'Yes,--he must eat.But I am not quite sure,' said Wharton thoughtfully, 'that he need think about what he eats.'
'Unless the beef is sent up without horse radish!' It had happened that when the two men sat down to their dinner the insufficient quantity of that vegetable supplied by the steward of the club had been all consumed, and Wharton had complained of the grievance.
'A man has a right to that for which he has paid,' said Wharton, with mock solemnity, 'and if he passes over laches of that nature without observation, he does an injury to humanity at large.I'm not going to be caught in a trap, you know, because I like horse radish with my beef.Well, I can't go farther out of my way, as I have a deal of reading to do before I court my Morpheus.If you'll take my advice, you'll go straight to the governor.
Whatever Emily may feel, I don't think she'll say much to encourage you unless you go about it after that fashion.She has prim notions of her own, which perhaps are not after all so much amiss when a man wants to marry a girl.'
'God forbid that I should think that anything about your sister was amiss!'
'I don't think there is much myself.Women are generally superficial,--but some are honestly superficial and some dishonestly.Emily at any rate is honest.'
'Stop half a moment.' Then they sauntered arm in arm down the broad pavement leading from Pall Mall to the Duke of York's column.'I wish I could make out your father more clearly.He is always civil to me, but he has a cold way of looking at me which makes me think I am not in his good books.'
'He is like that to everybody.'
'I never seem to get beyond the skin with him.You must have heard him speak of me in my absence.'
'He never says very much about anybody.'
