The whim has seized him to stir up the deplorable scandal of the Moonstone: and I am to help him by writing the account of what I myself witnessed while visiting at Aunt Verinder's house in London.

Pecuniary remuneration is offered to me--with the want of feeling peculiar to the rich.

I am to re-open wounds that Time has barely closed; I am to recall the most intensely painful remembrances--and this done, I am to feel myself compensated by a new laceration, in the shape of Mr.Blake's cheque.

My nature is weak.

It cost me a hard struggle, before Christian humility conquered sinful pride, and self-denial accepted the cheque.
Without my diary, I doubt--pray let me express it in the grossest terms!--if I could have honestly earned my money.