Then he was approached with propositions for forming a company.  He had paid fifty thousand dollars for a farm—­paid the money—­and before morning he had sold half of it for what he gave for the whole, and formed a company with the nominal capital of half a million of dollars, a moiety of the stock being his own at no cost to him whatever.  The arrangements were all made for the issue of stock and the commencement of operations, and when, three days afterward, he started from Titusville on his way home, he had in his satchel blank certificates of stock, all signed by the officers of the Continental Petroleum Company, to be limited in its issue to the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.  He never expected to see the land again.  He did not expect that the enterprise would be of the slightest value to those who should invest in it.  He expected to do just what others were doing—­to sell his stock and pocket the proceeds, while investors pocketed their losses.  It was all an acute business operation with him; and he intended to take advantage of the excitement of the time to “clean out” Sevenoaks and all the region round about his country home, while his confreres operated in their own localities.  He chuckled over his plans as if he contemplated some great, good deed that would be of incalculable benefit to his neighbors.  He suffered no qualm of conscience, no revolt of personal honor, no spasm of sympathy or pity.

As soon as he set out upon his journey homeward he began to think of his New York purchase.  He had taken a bold step, and he wished that he had said something to Mrs. Belcher about his plans, but he had been so much in the habit of managing everything in his business without consulting her, that it did not occur to him before he started from home that any matter of his was not exclusively his own.  He would just as soon have thought of taking Phipps into his confidence, or of deferring to his wishes in any project, as of extending those courtesies to his wife.  There was another consideration which weighed somewhat heavily upon his mind.  He was not entirely sure that he would not be ashamed of Mrs. Belcher in the grand home which he had provided for himself.  He respected her, and had loved her in his poor, sensual fashion, some changeful years in the past; he had regarded her as a good mother, and, at least, as an inoffensive wife; but she was not Mrs. Dillingham.  She would not be at home in the society of which he had caught a glimpse, or among the splendors to which he would be obliged to introduce her.  Even Talbot, the man who was getting rich upon the products of his enterprise, had a more impressive wife than he.  And thus, with much reflection, this strange, easy-natured brute without a conscience, wrought up his soul into self-pity.  In some way he had been defrauded.  It never could have been intended that a man capable of winning so many of his heart’s desires as he had proved himself to be, should be tied to a woman incapable of illuminating and honoring his position.  If he only had a wife of whose person he could be proud!  If he only had a wife whose queenly presence and manners would give significance to the splendors of the Palgrave mansion!