自深深处（五）

I remember one morning sitting in the yellowing woods at Bracknell with your mother.

At that time I knew very little of your real nature.

She told me of your two chief faults, your vanity, and your being, as she termed it, " all wrong about money."

I have a distinct recollection of how I laughed.

I thought vanity a sort of graceful flower for a young man to wear; as for extravagance -- the virtues of prudence and thrift were not in my own nature.

I had no idea that the first would bring me to prison, and the second to bankruptcy.