Page:Whyte-Melville--Bones and I.djvu/132

 your pardon for the allusion—on which I once read the following inscription:—

"What I spent I had—what I saved I lost—what I gave I have."

Surely this sentiment will bear analysing.

"What I spent I had." I enjoyed it, wasted it, got rid of it: derive from it now as much enjoyment as can ever be extracted from past pleasures of which self-indulgence was the motive—that is to say, none at all! "What I saved I lost." Undoubtedly. Mortgages, Consols, building-leases, railway scrip—it was locked up in securities that I could by no means bring with me here. It has been an error of judgment, a bad speculation, a foolish venture, a dead loss. "But what I gave I have." Ah! There I did good business: took the turn of the market; invested my capital in a bank that pays me cent, per cent., even now; and this, not only for the dross we