The clerk then felt the lowliness of his position; he longed for epaulettes, crosses, titles. All that would please her—he gathered that from her spendthrift habits.
As a result of his father's habit of living far beyond his means, the family was forced to sell all its possessions, down to the spoon, when Charles was 12 years old.
He came out on to the ground, chatted with everyone he saw: discussed his race a dozen times: had three or four beers: spent a few shillings with wild extravagance.