I witnessed bargains and contracts, and listened to talk of shipwrecks, mutinies, insurance cases, perjuries, failures, ruin, and rascalities.
His private opinions, and those who sought him, were kept in the background; the sole relation between them was--Traffic.

Personality was forgotten in the absorbed attention which was given to business.
They appeared to me, though, as if pursuing something beyond Gain, which should narcotize or stimulate them to forget that man's life was a vain going to and fro.
Mother reproached father for allowing me to adopt the habits of a man.
He thought it a wholesome change; besides, it would not last.

While I was his companion there were moments when he left his ledger for another book.
"You never call yourself a gambler, do you, Locke ?" mother asked.
"Strange, too, that you think of Cassy in your business life instead of me." "Mary, could I break your settled habits.

Cassy is afloat yet.

I can guide her hither and yon.