With women he was a favourite, and their society was his greatest pleasure; yet, in spite of his fervid temperament--in appearance fervid, at all events--he never seemed to fall in love.

Some there were who said that the self he went so far to discover would prove to have a female form.

Perhaps there was truth in this; perhaps he sought, whether consciously or no, the ideal woman.
None of those with whom he companioned had a charge of light wooing to bring against him, though one or two would not have held it a misfortune if they had tempted him to forget his speculations and declare that he had reached his goal.

But his striving always seemed to be for something remote from the world about him.

His capacity for warm feeling, itself undeniable, was never dissociated from that impersonal zeal which was the characteristic of his expressions in verse.