Wealth

Consider the conversation at the end of "Babylon Revisited" between Charlie and Paul:

"I heard that you lost a lot in the crash."

"I did," and [Charlie] added grimly, "but I lost everything I wanted in the boom."

"Selling short."

"Something like that." (5.4-7)

Sounds like we're meant to compare Charlie's financial loses with the loss of the other things in his life – things like his family, his sense of honor, his maturity, and his responsibility. It's ironic that Charlie had to lose all his financial wealth before he could start trying to regain what really mattered to him.

Charlie's response in regard to "selling short" is equally telling. "Short selling" is a risky stock market move in which the buyer sells a stock before he buys it. The idea is to sell it for more than he buys it, but if the price rises instead of falling he loses money. Charlie "short sold" his family in the sense that he under-valued, and he didn't recognize the worth of his wife and daughter until it was too late.

We should also note that Charlie is back on his feet financially at the time "Babylon Revisited" takes place. He's gotten back his financial wealth, but that's about it. He is still, as he laments at the end of the text, "so alone" (5.17).