He had had dreams of obtaining
honor both as a scholar and a soldier, but he had satisfied himself
that for one career he had not the mental ability, and for the other
neither the physical courage nor endurance necessary. Of mere rank
he was not envious. He had lived among noble men, and familiarity had
bred its usual consequence. But he did want money. He fully recognized
that gold entered every earthly gate, and he felt within himself the
capacity for its acquirement. He had also precedents for this
determination which seemed to justify it. The Duke of Norham's
younger son had a share in an immense brewery and wielded a power far
beyond that of his elder brother, who was simply waiting for a dukedom.
Lord Egremont, a younger son of the Earl of Soho, controlled large
amounts of railway stock, and it was said held a mortgage on the family
castle. To prove to his father and mother that no law of primogeniture
could disinherit him, appeared to George Eltham an object worth
striving for.
With these thoughts simmering in his heart he met Antony Hallam at
Oxford. They speedily became friends. Antony wanted money also. But
in him the craving arose from a more domineering ambition. He wished
to rule men, to be first every-where. He despised the simple provincial
title to which he was born, and the hall, with all its sweet gray
antiquity, was only a dull prison.
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