Chapter III.—The Shadow Over the AbbeyThat night during dinner, his first meal at Carmel Abbey, in the brief intervals of chatting with his charming and vivacious neighbor, a Miss Patricia Howard, Larose philosophically considered whether the possession of ample means was to be desired above most things, and he came to the conclusion most definitely that it was.
“It is all nonsense,” he reflected, “for people of no means to keep on repeating like parrots that money isn't everything, as if it were no good at all, because we get nearly all our happiness from what money brings, and without it we are poor things and have a rotten time.”
He looked round the room and sighed with great contentment. “Now, tonight is typical of what money can give! Here am I in the most comfortable surroundings p
