And if anybody desires a Yankee's opinion on shooting driven birds from rocking-chairs or potting tame deer from grand-stands, they can have it right now!" Usually nobody wanted his further opinion; and sometimes they got it and sometimes not, if his wife was within earshot.

Otherwise Ferrall appeared to be a normal man, energetically devoted to his business, his pleasures, his friends, and comfortably in love with his wife.

And if some considered his vigour in business to be lacking in mercy, that vigour was always exercised within the law.

He never transgressed the rules of war, but his headlong energy sometimes landed him close to the dead line.

He had already breakfasted, when the earliest risers entered the morning room to saunter about the sideboards and investigate the simmering contents of silver-covered dishes on the warmers.
The fragrance of coffee was pleasantly perceptible; men in conventional shooting attire roamed about the room, selected what they cared for, and carried it to the table.