His tastes had led him into the avenues of success, and as he had not encountered grand resistances, he entertained his opinion of their sex.

The particular maxim he cherished was, to stake everything on his making a favourable first impression: after which single figure, he said, all your empty naughts count with women for hundreds, thousands, millions: noblest virtues are but sickly units.

He would have stared like any Philistine at the tale of their capacity to advance to a likeness unto men in their fight with the world.

Women for him were objects to be chased, the politician's relaxation, taken like the sportsman's business, with keen relish both for the pursuit and the prey, and a view of the termination of his pastime.

Their feelings he could appreciate during the time when they flew and fell, perhaps a little longer; but the change in his own feelings withdrew him from the communion of sentiment.