The divine afflatus wouldn't come down upon me.

There are times when a man's brain seems to be made of melted butter.

Mine has been like that for the last week or so." "I thought you were going back to your fishing village near Oxford." "No, I was not in spirits for that.

I have dined two or three times in Cavendish Square, and have been made much of, and have contrived to forget my troubles for a few hours." "You talk of your troubles as if you were very heavily burdened; and yet, for the life of me, I cannot see what you have to complain of," Gilbert said wonderingly.
"Of course not.

That is always the case with one's friends--even the best of them.