And there is a deal to be said for this method.

His book was what he had been at during nearly the whole of that time; comparatively speaking, the fishing and "other distractions" (a neat phrase) had got an occasional hour only.

But while we admire, we can't do it in that way.

We seem fated to go on taking it for granted that you know the "vital facts" about Tommy, and devoting our attention to the things that the real biographer leaves out.
Tommy arrived in London with little more than ten pounds in his pockets.

All the rest he had spent on Elspeth.
He looked for furnished chambers in a fashionable quarter, and they were much too expensive.