The liquor he had drunk had not fevered him, it had not wildly excited him; it merely drew him up to a point where he could put a sudden impulse into practice without flinching.

He was bitter against his people; he credited them with more interference than was actual.

He felt that happiness had gone out of his life and left him hopeless.

As we said, he was a man of quick decisions.

He would have made a dashing but reckless soldier; he was not without the elements of the gamester.