He had fancied the enjoyments which would be his if ever he were rich enough to pay for them.

And now he was able to afford all such pleasures he cared nothing for them; for the ecstasy of making money seemed better than any masculine dissipation or delight.

He did sometimes dine at Greenwich.

He knew the _menus_ of the different taverns by heart, and had discovered that they were all alike vanity and indigestion; but he never seated himself at one of those glistening little tables, or deliberated with an obsequious waiter over the mysteries of the wine _carte_, without a settled purpose to be served by the eating of the dinner, and a definite good to be achieved by the wine he ordered.

He gave many such entertainments at home and abroad; but they were all given to men who were likely to be useful to him--to rich men, or the toadies and hangers-on of rich men, the grand viziers of the sultans of the money-market.