He had expected Marston to represent himself as poor and unfortunate, and make a demand for substantial help.
He listened open mouthed to Gurth’s narrative, but offered no remark. However astonished Birnie might be, he never confessed it. For a man to be astonished is for him to see or hear something unexpected. Birnie prided himself upon being prepared for anything that might happen.
The next best thing to having any gift or virtue is to pretend to have it. Birnie owed much of his later success in life to constantly bearing this maxim in mind.
Marston’s interview with Gurth Egerton had a great effect, though it was quite contrary to what Birnie had supposed it would be.
For years Egerton had wavered, unable to decide upon any course in life. Suddenly the ambitious views of an old comrade opened out a new vista before him.
Here was a man who had led a roving life, who had been under a cloud for years—a man whom Egerton had known to be in the very depths of poverty—here was this adventurer, Edward Marston, without fortune and without position, boldly aiming at both, and not hesitating to aspire to political fame.
If Marston could do all this with no advantages, what could not he, Gurth Egerton, do with the money at his command?
Here, at last, was an aim in life. He would put all the old foolish fears behind him and be somebody. The fortune for which he had dared and endured so much should be of some use to him. Ten years of his life had been wasted He would make up for the lost time, and take a place in society. It had been his ambition in the early days of his penury to be a great man, admired, caressed, and fêted. When wealth came to his grasp the ambition faded away, overgrown by a new set of sensations altogether.
But the bold words of Marston called the faded fancies into new life. Yes, here was something to live for—fame, position. In the pursuit of them he could forget the past.