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He has tried on many
occasions to lure me into his web, but hitherto I have resisted.
Being the possessor of a large fortune, he has been able to gratify a
devouring passion for philanthropy, and has squandered most of his money
on an institution--a kind of club, school, labour-bureau, dispensary,
soup-kitchen, all rolled into one--in Lambeth; and there he
lives himself, perfectly happy among a hungry, grubby, scarecrow,
tatterdemalion crowd. At a loss for a defining name, he has called it
"Barbara's Building," after his mother. His conception of the cosmos
is that sun, moon and stars revolve round Barbara's Building. How he
learned that I was, so to speak, standing at street corners and flinging
money into the laps of the poor and needy, I know not. But he came to
see me a day or two ago, full of Barbara's Building, and departed in
high feather with a cheque for a thousand pounds in his pocket.
I may remark here on the peculiar difficulty there is in playing Monte
Cristo with anything like picturesque grace.


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