Handsome and gifted, he had the disastrous misfortune just after leaving college to kill his friend in a duel--a mortal affair growing, as was usual in those days, out of a trivial cause--and this not only saddened his life, but, in its ambitious aims, shadowed and defeated it.

His university comrades had fully counted on his making a great career.

Being a man of fortune, he was able to live like a gentleman without public preferment, and this he did, except to his familiars aloof and sensitive to the last.
William Preston, the whilom Minister to Spain and Confederate General, and David Yandell, the eminent surgeon, were his devoted friends, and a notable trio they made.

Stoddard Johnston, Boyd Winchester and I--very much younger men--sat at their feet and immensely enjoyed their brilliant conversation.
Dr.Yandell was not only as proclaimed by Dr.Gross and Dr.Sayre the ablest surgeon of his day, but he was also a gentleman of varied experience and great social distinction.

He had studied long in Paris and was the pal of John Howard Payne, the familiar friend of Lamartine, Dumas and Lemaitre.