In his good clothes and fine health, he was a merry, unthinking moth of the lamp.

Deprived of his position, and struck by a few of the involved and baffling forces which sometimes play upon man, he would have been as helpless as Carrie--as helpless, as non-understanding, as pitiable, if you will, as she.
Now, in regard to his pursuit of women, he meant them no harm, because he did not conceive of the relation which he hoped to hold with them as being harmful.

He loved to make advances to women, to have them succumb to his charms, not because he was a cold-blooded, dark, scheming villain, but because his inborn desire urged him to that as a chief delight.

He was vain, he was boastful, he was as deluded by fine clothes as any silly-headed girl.

A truly deep-dyed villain could have hornswaggled him as readily as he could have flattered a pretty shop-girl.