Secret of the River by Fred M. White

Though Nevil had taken up his duties with Murray and Co. more or less earnestly from the very first, he began to throw himself heart and soul into the commercial whirlpool. It was, at any rate, a medium by which he could escape from his own troubled thoughts, the more so because the frost still held and all outdoor amusements had come to an end for the time being. So he went up to London two or three days a week and began to study office life, much as he had studied the stage in those strenuous days in America. He was a partner in the firm and on the board of directors and, within a fortnight or so, began to be quite a familiar figure in financial circles.

Moreover, he liked the business. There was an air of movement and a sense of the battle of wits and the strenuous struggle that always appeals to a man of ambition, and Nevil had more than his fair share of that. Again, he found himself, ever and anon, meeting old schoolfellows, now in prominent positions in certain great City houses, and these hailed him with various degrees of enthusiasm. He would lunch with one or another and, occasionally, accompany some budding financier to his home for the night.