Luck, which certainly had not been too kind to my hero hitherto, now seemed to have taken him under
her protection. The neighbourhood prospered, and he with it. It seemed as though he no sooner bought
a thing and put it into his shop, than it sold with a profit of from thirty to fifty per cent. He learned book-
keeping, and watched his accounts carefully, following up any success immediately; he began to buy
other things besides clothes - such as books, music, odds and ends of furniture, etc. Whether it was
luck or business aptitude, or energy, or the politeness with which he treated all his customers, I cannot
say - but to the surprise of no one more than himself, he went ahead faster than he had anticipated,
even in his wildest dreams, and by Easter was established in a strong position as the owner of a business
which was bringing him in between four and five hundred a year, and which he understood how to extend.