The Old Skinflin's Life

His life, apathetic and motionless hung in a net of gold. The cardinal rule of his existence was not to let himself be worried. He used to strike me sometimes that old lemon was just like one of his own melons. On the keep of those melons, Kate and I could have lived like gods. But after all it's my only hobby. Why shouldn't I indulge it? As if I had ever been able to indulge any of mine.