at a time when the least sanguine did not dream ah a necessary � signed his check for two hundred thousand without a quiver gentlemen without a quiver was the report of the secretary of the enterprise who had been sent on the forlorn hope of finding out ah s intentions and on top of the many similar actions that were true of his word there was scarcely a man of in the islands that at one time or another had not experienced the helping financial hand of ah so it was that watched his wonderful family grow up into a problem and secretly with him for it was beyond any of them to imagine what he was going to do with it but ah saw the problem more clearly than they no one knew as he knew the extent to which he was an alien h p ah in his family his own family did not guess it he saw that there was no place for him amongst this marvellous seed of his and he looked forward to his declining years and knew that he would grow more and more alien he did not understand his children their conversation was of things that did not interest him and about which he knew nothing the culture of the west had passed him by he was to the last fibre which meant that he was heathen their christianity was to him so much nonsense but all this he would have ignored as and could he have but understood the young people themselves when for instance told him that the housekeeping bills for the month were thirty thousand � that he understood as he understood ah s request for five thousand with which to buy the and become a member of the club but it was their complicated desires and mental processes that him he was not slow in learning that the mind of each son and daughter was a secret which he could never hope to tread always he came upon the wall that east from west their souls were inaccessible to him and by the same token he knew that his soul was inaccessible to them besides as the years came upon him he found himself back more and more to his own kind the smells of the chinese quarter were to him he them with satisfaction as he passed along the street for in his mind they carried him back to the narrow ah of with life and movement he regretted that he had cut off his to please in the days and he seriously considered the of his crown and growing a new one the dishes his highly paid for him failed to his in the way that the weird did in the down in the chinese quarter he enjoyed vastly more a half hour s smoke and chat with two or three chinese than to at the lavish and elegant dinners for which his was where the pick of the americans and sat at the long table men and women on equality the women with jewels that blazed in the subdued light against white necks and arms the men in evening dress and ah all chattering and laughing over topics and that while they were not exactly greek to him did not interest him nor entertain but it was not merely his and his growing desire to return to his chinese flesh pots that constituted the problem there was also his wealth he had looked forward to a placid old age he had worked hard his reward should have been peace and repose but he knew that with his immense fortune peace and repose could not possibly be already there were signs and he had seen similar troubles before there was his old employer whose children had from him by due process of law the management of his property having the court to administer it for him ah ah knew and knew ly well that had been a poor man it would have been found that he could quite manage his own affairs and old had had only three children and half a million while he ah had fifteen children and no one but himself knew how many millions our daughters are beautiful women he said to his wife one evening there are many young men the house is always full of young men my cigar bills are very heavy why are there no marriages shrugged her shoulders and waited women are women and men are men � it is strange there are no marriages perhaps the young men do not like our daughters ah ah they like them well enough answered but you sec they cannot forget that you are your daughters father yet you forgot who my father was ah said gravely all you asked was for me to cut off my the young men are more particular than i was i fancy what is the greatest thing in the world ah demanded with abrupt pondered for a moment then replied god he nodded there are gods and gods some are paper some are wood some are bronze i use a small one in the office for a paper weight in the bishop museum are many gods of coral rock and ah but there is only one god she announced her ample frame ah noted the danger signal and off what is greater than god then he asked i will tell you it is money in my time i have had dealings with jews and christians and and with little black men from the and new guinea who carried their god about them wrapped in paper they possessed various gods these men but they all worshipped money there is that captain he seems to like he will never marry her retorted he will be an admiral before he dies � a rear admiral ah inter ah yes i know that is the way they retire 