Mere poverty and lack of ease did not frighten him at all; he had hardly given a thought as yet to that aspect of misfortune.
What most of all distressed his imagination (putting aside thought of his mother and sister) was the sudden fall from a position of genial authority, of beneficent command, with all the respect and gratitude and consideration attaching thereto.

He could do without personal comforts, if need were, but it pained him horribly to think of being no longer a patron and a master.

With a good deal more philosophy than the average man, and vastly more benevolence, he could not attain to the humility which would have seen in this change of fortune a mere surrender of privileges perhaps quite unjustifiable.

Social grades were an inseparable part of his view of life; he recognised the existence of his superiors--though resolved to have as little to do with them as possible, and took it as a matter of course that multitudes of men should stand below his level.

To imagine himself an object of pity for Mrs.Hopper and Allchin and the rest of them wrought upon his bile, disordered his digestion.
He who had regarded so impatiently the trials of Norbert Franks now had to go through an evil time, with worse results upon his temper, his health, and whole being, than he would have thought conceivable.