Underneath all this very gauzy surface, Ebden, as all who had his
intimacy were aware, was withal a man of ability and good common sense,
and, what was practically more, he was reputed to rank high in the role
of success in the early allotment rig. Indeed, in the rapid
fortune-making of that time, he contemplated a palatial residence for
himself upon an ample frontage to Collins-street, next above the Bank of
Australasia. Two back offices had been built towards the full idea, but
the allotment game had already turned ere he got further, and there the
incomplete work stood. The "offices" were readily sold or let, and from
intended sculleries or what not, rose to be the places of business of
two early firms of solicitors--Meek and Clarke on the one side, and
Montgomery and McCrae on the other. The spacious frontage remained long
unbuilt upon, but it has since been taken as part of a "Temple"--not,
however, of the gods, but of very different people--the lawyers.
He and I were on opposite sides of the political hedge, at least in the
times when we were together in public life, both in Sydney and
Melbourne, during the pre-constitutional era. He belonged, almost beyond
any others--the exceptions being perhaps limited to William Forlong and
my friend A.
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