The Deluge

This is the story, given in his own words, of Matthew Blacklock, a hero of finance and a self-made man. In The Deluge (1905), the hero declares; Financiers do not gamble. Their only vice is grand larceny. Honesty's a bluff with most of the big respectables; under cover of their respectability, of their 'old and honoured names, ' of their social connections, of their church-going and that, they do all sorts of queer work.