He might have managed in cheaper rooms; he might have done without this and the other little luxury.

To have travelled widely would now be of some use to him; it gave a man a certain freedom in society, added an octave to the compass of his discourse.

Acquaintance with books did not serve the same end; and, though he read a good deal, Dyce was tolerably aware that not by force of erudition could he look for advancement.

He began to perceive it as a misfortune that he had not earlier in life become clear as to the nature of his ambition.

Until a couple of years ago he had scarcely been conscious of any aim at all, for the literary impulses which used to inspire his talk with Connie Bride were merely such as stir in every youth of our time; they had never got beyond talk, and, on fading away, left him without intellectual motive.