Surrounded as I was by those who were only too ready to take advantage of my ignorance or want of vigilance, I soon fell into evil ways, and gradually, in spite of myself, I found wealth pouring in upon me.

Designing men succeeded in winning my consent to receive their possessions; and so I gradually fell away from that lofty position in which I was born.

I grew richer and richer.

My friends warned me, but in vain.

I was too weak to resist; in fact, I lacked moral fibre, and had never learned how to say 'No.' So I went on, descending lower and lower in the scale of being.