It seemed to him that he would bear a little spoiling.

And yet he treated himself to a very modest quantity, and submitted without reserve to the great national discipline which began in 1861.

When the Civil War broke out he immediately obtained a commission, and did his duty for three long years as a citizen soldier.

His duty was obscure, but he never lost a certain private satisfaction in remembering that on two or three occasions it had been performed with something of an ideal precision.

He had disentangled himself from business, and after the war he felt a profound disinclination to tie the knot again.