"Coming in?"

I paused for a last moment and nodded yes.

"Ah!" he cried. "Why couldn't you say that a week ago?"

"I've had false ideas about the world," I said. "Oh! they don't matter
now! Yes, I'll come, I'll take my chance with you, I won't hesitate
again."

And I didn't. I stuck to that resolution for seven long years.


CHAPTER THE THIRD

HOW WE MADE TONO-BUNGAY HUM

I

So I made my peace with my uncle, and we set out upon this
bright enterprise of selling slightly injurious rubbish at
one-and-three-halfpence and two-and-nine a bottle, including the
Government stamp. We made Tono-Bungay hum! It brought us wealth,
influence, respect, the confidence of endless people. All that my uncle
promised me proved truth and understatement; Tono-Bungay carried me to
freedoms and powers that no life of scientific research, no passionate
service of humanity could ever have given me....

It was my uncle's genius that did it. No doubt he needed me,--I was,