There were very good fellows, who were disposed to cultivate him, who bored him to death; and there were others, in whom even Rowland's good-nature was unable to discover a pretext for tolerance, in whom he appeared to find the highest social qualities.

He used to give the most fantastic reasons for his likes and dislikes.

He would declare he could n't speak a civil word to a man who brushed his hair in a certain fashion, and he would explain his unaccountable fancy for an individual of imperceptible merit by telling you that he had an ancestor who in the thirteenth century had walled up his wife alive.

"I like to talk to a man whose ancestor has walled up his wife alive," he would say.

"You may not see the fun of it, and think poor P---- is a very dull fellow.