A Social Meteor — page 145: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A SUCIAL METECR. 135 the fire burn and the kettle boil when nothing else will.’ ” And he drained his cup and set it down. “I agree with you, Peter,” remarked Ray, seri- ously. “Give me money and I will take my chances with everything else. I should never know another happy hour if I were to become poot. I’m sure of it. They say there is nothing more dreadful than to find yourself beggared after a life of ease and affluence, but I don’t believe it; I think it’s much worse for one who enjoys the good things of life after years of poverty, to have to come down, for he knows just what he has to go through with, all over again, and the anticipa- tion alone, must cause him perfect agony. At any rate, it would be so with me. I haven’t always been fed on ‘sweetmeats,’ as Charley would say; it’s only since my marriage that [ve been able to buy without counting the cost, and if that privilege were to be taken away from me now, I should die. I know I should. Let any misfor- tune threaten, loss of friends or reputation, sick- ness, even death itself; I could stand anything, but to be deprived of the means with which to surround myself with all that to me, makes life worth living.” Gomichboo SS (E@)