The patrician appearance and manners of the Captain were a perennial source of profit to that gentleman; but Valentine Hawkehurst had not a patrician appearance; and the work which Mr.Sheldon found for him was of a more uncertain and less profitable character than that which fell to the share of the elegant Horatio.

But Valentine was content.

He shared the Captain's lodging, though he did not partake of the Captain's dinners or ride in the smart little brougham.

He had a roof to shelter him, and was rarely unprovided with the price of some kind of dinner; and as this was the highest order of prosperity he had ever known, he was content.

He was more than content; for the first time in his existence he knew what it was to be happy.