I could picture the view from this window in the early morning, with the dew upon the grass, and the blackbirds whistling in the shrubbery.

I am not a vain man, I think, but at this juncture I stood before the looking-glass and surveyed myself.

For the first time in my life I could have wished that I had been better-looking.

At last I turned angrily away.
"What a duffer I am to be sure!" I said to myself.

"If I begin to get notions like this in my head there is no knowing where I may end.