Alice implored her brother to come and 'do something.' Richard, though a married man of only six weeks' standing, had troubles altogether in excess of his satisfactions.

Things were not as they should have been in that earthly paradise called New Wanley.

It was not to be expected that the profits of that undertaking would be worth speaking of for some little time to come, but it was extremely desirable that it should pay its own expenses, and it began to be doubtful whether even this moderate success was being achieved.

Various members of the directing committee had visited New Wanley recently, and Richard had talked to them in a somewhat discouraging tone; his fortune was not limitless, it had to be remembered; a considerable portion of old Mutimer's money had lain in the vast Belwick concern of which he was senior partner; the surviving members of the firm were under no specified obligation to receive Richard himself as partner, and the product of the realised capital was a very different thing from the share in the profits which the old man had enjoyed.

Other capital Richard had at his command, but already he was growing chary of encroachments upon principal.