He has been offered bribes innumerable; but in each and every instance
the would-be briber has learned a very unpleasant lesson. For this
man, who might be worth almost anything he wished, is by no means
affluent. But he has kept his name untarnished and his spirit high
through good fortune and through bad, through evil repute and good.
Wooldridge does not know the meaning of a lie. A lie is something so
foreign to his nature that he has trouble in comprehending how others
can see profit in falsifying. It has been his cardinal principle
through life that liars always come to a bad end finally. And he has
seen his healthy estimate of life vindicated, both in the high circles
of frenzied finance and in the low levels of sneak-thievery.