"Men must have mercenary tendencies or they would not have bread. The man who ploughs that he may live does so because he, luckily, has a mercenary tendency."
"Just so. But you see I am less lucky than the ploughman."
"There is no vulgar error so vulgar,—that is to say, common or erroneous, as that by which men have been taught to say that mercenary tendencies are bad. A desire for wealth is the source of all progress. Civilization comes from what men call greed. Let your mercenary tendencies be combined with honesty and they cannot take you astray." This the future Chancellor of the Exchequer said with much of that air and tone of wisdom which a Chancellor of the Exchequer ought to possess.
"But I haven't got any such tendencies," said Jeffrey.
"Would you like to occupy a farm in Scotland?" said Plantagenet Palliser.
"And pay rent?"
"You would have to pay rent of course."
"Thank you, no. It would be dishonest, as I know I should never pay it."
"You are too old, I fear, for the public service."
"You mean a desk in the Treasury,—with a hundred a year. Yes; I think I am too old."