Page:Shiana - Peadar Ua Laoghaire.djvu/277

Rh misfortune for both of them on account of money. Money makes twenty misfortunes beside those. Many a man loses his wits with vanity and pride, and self-complacency, who would be humble enough if he were poor. Many a man shortens his life with drink when his pockets are full, who would live to e liundred if they were empty."

"I think you make a slight mistake there," said Shiana. "That man who would murder another to get his money, what need would there be for his committing that murder if he himself had money enough? It seems to me that empty pockets drive people to the bad as often as full pockets do. I suppose you know the proverb: 'Downright wantonness and extreme poverty are the two best things to drive a man to the bad.'"

"That is exactly where you bothered me completely," said the Black Man. "You had extreme poverty at first, and it did not cause you to go astray. You gave the alms when you had only the three shillings. When I saw that, I knew that the sharpest poverty would not bring you to harm. I was quite sure that wealth would do to you what poverty had failed to do. It did not. When I saw that you cared just as little for riches as you did for poverty I determined to come at you in another way. I put that other enemy in your way. My knowledge of human nature is wide, and my experience of it is intimate. I have often met a person whom poverty could not bring to harm, and I have often met a person whom wealth could not bring to harm. But I seldom ever met a person whom that other enemy could not take off his feet. That other enemy did not take you off your feet,