He was credulous.

Yet there was something caustic about him.

He had in him the seeds of extreme disillusionment, which would come to him from women in middle life.
Perhaps if one strove hard enough to reach the top of the hill it need not come to him--this disillusionment from women in middle life.
"The hotel is awful," she said.

"The last visitors had left their basins full of dirty water.

There is always that," she laughed.
"The people one meets ARE beastly," Jacob said.
His excitement was clear enough.
"Write and tell me about it," she said.