“You ought to have a trustee to take care of your money.”

“It would be a small matter to bribe him off, Jack, of course, you do not need the money now, but that is no sign you may not in the days to come.  I have known many journalists; they were ever improvident.  I want to make an exception in your case.  You understand; the money is for your old age.”

“Let me tell you why a newspaper man is improvident.  He earns money only to spend it.  He has a fine scorn for money as money.  He cares more for what a dollar spent has bought than what five saved might buy.”

“Poor creditors!” was the melancholy interpolation.

I passed over this, and went on:  “It is the work which absorbs his whole attention.  He begins at the bottom of the ladder, which is in the garret.  First, he is running about the streets at two and three in the morning, in rain and snow and fog.  The contact with the lower classes teaches him many things.  He becomes the friend of the policeman and the vagabond.  And as his mind grows broader his heart grows in proportion.  It is the comparing of the great and small which makes us impartial and philosophical.  Well, soon the reporter gets better assignments and shorter hours.  He meets the noted men and women of the city.  Suddenly from the city editor’s desk his ambition turns to Washington.  He succeeds there.  He now comes into the presence of distinguished ambassadors, ministers and diplomatists.  He acquires a polish and a smattering of the languages.  His work becomes a feature of his paper.  The president chooses him for a friend; he comes and goes as he wills.  Presently his eye furtively wanders to Europe.  The highest ambition of a journalist, next to being a war correspondent, is to have a foreign post.  In this capacity he meets the notable men and women of all countries; he speaks to princes and grand dukes and crowned heads.  In a way he becomes a personage himself, a man whom great men seek.  And he speaks of the world as the poet did of the fall of Pompeii, ‘Part of which I was and all of which I saw.’  Ah,” as my mind ran back over my own experiences, “what man with this to gain would care for money; a thing which would dull his imagination and take away the keen edge of ambition, and make him play a useless part in this kingly drama of life!”

“I like your frankness,” said Pembroke.  “I have no doubt that journalism is the most fascinating profession there is.  Yet, you must not accuse the rich of being ambitionless.  I have known of rich men losing their all to make papers for men who are ambitious to be foreign correspondents.”  The young fellow was brimming with raillery.  “I have never tried to run a newspaper, but I am, notwithstanding your tirade, ambitious.  I am desirous to wed Miss Landors.”

The cab was now rolling along the row.

“A truly great ambition,” I admitted.  “After all, what greater ambition is there than to marry the woman you love?  Philip, I will accept your gift in the spirit it is given, and I’ll make use of it in the days to come, when I am old and rusted.  I understand your motive.  You are happy and wish every one to be.”