noon
Besides this method of making money , so strictly social , Saville had also applied his keen intellect and shrewd sense to other speculations . Cheap houses , cheap horses , fluctuations in the funds , all descriptions of property -LRB- except perhaps stolen goods -RRB- , had passed under his earnest attention ; and in most cases , such speculations had eminently succeeded . He was therefore now , in his middle age , and still unmarried , a man decidedly wealthy ; having , without ever playing miser , without ever stinting a luxury , or denying a wish , turned nothing into something , poverty into opulence . It was noon ; and Saville was slowly finishing his morning repast , and conversing with a young man stretched on a sofa opposite in a listless attitude . The room was in perfect keeping with the owner : there was neither velvet , nor gilding , nor buhl , nor marquetrie -- all of which would have been inconsistent with the moderate size of the apartment . But the furniture was new , massive , costly , and luxurious without the ostentation of luxury . A few good pictures , and several exquisite busts and figures in bronze , upon marble pedestals , gave something classic and graceful to the aspect of the room .