He has done it, evidently.

This boy will be worth five or ten thousand a year, I hear." "Poor fellow! He looks as if it will be a battle with him to reach it.
What a cough!" "I can't understand Oliphant not taking better care of him.

He drags him about all over town, as if the boy were cast iron.

I met them out twice this week." "Certainly one cannot afford to play fast and loose with the goose that lays the golden eggs." The "goose" in question made other acquaintances than these.

In his bachelor days Captain Oliphant had "knocked about" in London pretty considerably, and had a notion, now that he was a bachelor again, to repeat the process.