And the absolute gold,--not the money, not the balance at one's banker's, not the plentiful so much per annum,--but the absolute metal clinging about the palm of one's hands like small gravel, or welded together in a lump too heavy to be lifted, has a peculiar charm of its own.

I have heard of a man who, having his pocket full of diamonds, declared, as he let them run through his fingers, that human bliss could not go beyond that sensation.

John Caldigate did not shoe his horse with gold; but he liked to feel that he had enough gold by him to shoe a whole team.

He could not return home quite as yet.

His affairs were too complicated to be left quite at a moment's notice.