He
was wide-eyed, and he had a big soul. He trained himself to believe in
himself and to follow his own judgment; therefore, he invited loss upon
loss, he made mistake upon mistake, he heaped financial adventure upon
financial adventure, he ran great risks; and it is possible that his vast
belief in himself kept him going when other men would have dropped by the
wayside. He loved his wife and daughter, and he lost them both. He loved
his farms, his mills and his manor, and they disappeared from his
control.
It must be remembered that the story of The Money Master really runs for
a generation, and it says something for Jean Jacques Barbille that he
could travel through scenes, many of them depressing, for long years,
and still, in the end, provoke no disparagement, by marrying the
woman who had once out of the goodness of her heart offered him
everything--herself, her home, her honour; and it was to Jean Jacques's
credit that he took neither until the death of his wife made him free;
but the tremendous gift offered him produced a powerful impression upon
his mind and heart.
One of the most distinguished men of the world to-day wrote me in praise
and protest concerning The Money Master. He declared that the first half
of the book was as good as anything that had been done by anybody, and
then he bemoaned the fact, which he believed, that the author had
sacrificed his two heroines without real cause and because he was tired
of them.
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