Unhappily, it was but the morbid anatomy of human nature he cared to study.

For all his abuse of it, he did not yet recognize it as morbid, but took it as normal, and the best to be had.

No doubt, he therein judged and condemned himself, but that he never thought of--nor, perceived, would it have been a point of any consequence to him.
From the first, he saw through Mr.Mortimer, and all belonging to him, except Miss Yolland: she soon began to puzzle--and, so far, to please him, though, as I have said, he did not like her.

Had he been a younger man, she would have captivated him; as it was, she would have repelled him entirely, but that she offered him a good subject.

He said to himself that she was a bad lot, but what sort of a bad lot was not so clear as to make her devoid of interest to him; he must discover how she played her life-game; she had a history, and he would fain know it.
As I have said, however, so far it had come to nothing, for, upon the surface, Sepia showed herself merely like any other worldly girl who knows "on which side her bread is buttered." The moment he had found, or believed he had found, what there was to know about her, he was sure to hate her heartily.