From the records of his early dandyism, his flowing hair and his lemon-coloured gloves, it is probable enough that he was vain of his good looks.

He was vain of his masculinity, his knowledge of the world, and he was, I fancy, decidedly vain of his prejudices, even, it might be said, vain of being vain of them.

But everything is against the idea that he was much in the habit of thinking of himself in his intellectual aspect.

In the matter of conversation, for example, some people who liked him found him genial, talkative, anecdotal, with a certain strengthening and sanative quality in his mere bodily presence.

Some people who did not like him found him a mere frivolous chatterer, afflicted with bad manners.