‘Would you have received the inheritance on condition that your front teeth should be knocked out?’
‘No.’
‘Would you have given up a year of your life for that fortune trebled?’
‘Even at twenty-three I would have refused the terms.’
‘Come, come, Coningsby, the calamity cannot be very great.’
‘Why, you have put it in an ingenious point of view; and yet it is not so easy to convince a man, that he should be content who has lost everything.’
‘You have a great many things at this moment that you separately prefer to the fortune that you have forfeited. How then can you be said to have lost everything?’
‘What have I?’ said Coningsby, despondingly.
‘You have health, youth, good looks, great abilities, considerable knowledge, a fine courage, a lofty spirit, and no contemptible experience. With each of these qualities one might make a fortune; the combination ought to command the highest.’
‘You console me,’ said Coningsby, with a faint blush and a fainter smile.