From hawking he had risen to a profitable traffic in gold lace and Brummagem jewelry, with a large _clientele_ all over the country, before he was twenty.

He touched nothing which he did not profit by; and when he married, at twenty-three, a woman nearly twice his age, the transaction was not without the usual percentage.

Very soon his line was diamonds,--real diamonds.

He carried, a pocket-knife which was a combination of a corkscrew, a pair of scissors, a file, a pair of tweezers, a toothpick, and half a dozen other things, and which seemed an epitome of his character.

His temperament was lively, and, like Ephraim Phillips, he liked music-halls.