Afterwards I looked up their names in his private book and found that
one and all of those who had spoken thus owed moneys to his estate.
When the will was sworn and I found myself the master of many legions,
or rather of more money, land, and other wealth than I had ever dreamed
of, at first I was minded to be rid of trade and to take up my abode
upon one or other of my manors, where I might live in plenty for the
rest of my days. In the end, however, I did not do so, partly because
I shrank from new faces and surroundings, and partly because I was sure
that such would not have been my uncle's wish.
Instead I set myself to play and outpass his game. He had died very
rich; I determined that I would die five or ten times richer; the
richest man in England if I could, not because I cared for money, of
which indeed I spent but little upon myself, but because the getting
of it and the power that it brought, seemed to me the highest kind
of sport. So bending my mind to the matter I doubled and trebled his
enterprises on this line and on that, and won and won again, for even
where skill and foresight failed, Fortune stood my friend with a such
strange persistence that at length I became superstitious and grew
frightened of her gifts.
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