He had continued a failure at Winchester and at Christ Church, Oxford.

He had desired to be a painter; he had broken from the family and gone to study Art in Paris.

He had starved and starved, was at death's door, was dragged home, and there suddenly had relapsed into Polchester, lived first on his father, then on his brother-in-law, painted about the town, painted, made cynical remarks about the Polcastrians, painted, made blasphemous remarks about the bishop, the dean and all the canons, painted, and refused to leave his brother-in-law's house.

He was a scandal, of course; he was fat, untidy, wore a blue tam-o'-shanter when he was "out," and sometimes went down Orange Street in carpet slippers.
He was a scandal, but what are you to do if a relative is obstinate and refuses to go?
At least make him shave, say the wives of the canons.

But no one had ever made Samuel Trefusis do anything that he did not want to do.