To me it seemed the precursor of ruin.

His second payment was yet to be made.
Had I been in his place I would have been taking my meals in an adjacent hotel, sleeping on a cot in one of the editorial rooms and working fifteen hours out of the twenty-four.

To me it seemed dollars to doughnuts that he would break down and go to smash.

But he did not--another case of destiny.
I was abiding with my family at Monte Carlo, when in his floating palace, the Liberty, he came into the harbor of Mentone.

Then he bought a shore palace at Cap Martin.