midnight
I can honestly say , Rupert -- you wo n't mind me using that familiarity , will you ? -- that , though the interests which I guarded were so vast that without abusing my trust I could often have used my knowledge to my personal advantage , I never once , in little matters or big , abused that trust -- no , not even rubbed the bloom off it . And now that he has remembered me in his Will so generously that I need work no more , it will be a very genuine pleasure and pride to me to carry out as well as I can the wishes that I partly knew , and now realize more fully towards you , his nephew . '' In the long chat which we had , and which lasted till midnight , he told me many very interesting things about Uncle Roger . When , in the course of conversation , he mentioned that the fortune Uncle Roger left must be well over a hundred millions , I was so surprised that I said out loud -- I did not mean to ask a question : `` How on earth could a man beginning with nothing realize such a gigantic fortune ? '' `` By all honest ways , '' he answered , `` and his clever human insight . He knew one half of the world , and so kept abreast of all public and national movements that he knew the critical moment to advance money required .