'
'If a large fortune were really a bad thing,' said Gerald, 'a man
could I suppose get rid of it.'
'No;--it is a thing of which a man cannot get rid,--unless by
shameful means. It is a burden which he must carry to the end.'
'Does anybody wish to get rid of it, as Sinbad did of the Old
Man?' asked Gerald pertinaciously. 'At any rate I have enjoyed the
kidneys.'
'You assured us just now that the bread and cheese at Ely were
just as good.' The Duke as he said this looked as though he knew
that he had taken all the wind out of his adversary's sails.
'Though you add carriage to carriage, you will not be carried more
comfortably.'
'A second horse out hunting is a comfort,' said Silverbridge.
'Then at any rate don't desire a third for show. But such comforts
will cease to be joys when they become matters of course. That a
boy who does not see a pudding once a year should enjoy a pudding
when it comes I can understand; but the daily pudding, or the
pudding twice a day, is soon no more than a simple daily bread,--
which will or will not be sweet as it shall or shall not have been
earned.
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