He was rarely, if ever, asked to join the chase, and still more rarely invited to the festivities and amusements provided in adjacent houses, or to the grander entertainments of the higher nobles.
Too quick to take offence where none was really intended, he fancied that many bore him ill-will who had scarcely given him a passing thought.

He could not forgive the coarse jokes uttered upon his personal appearance by men of heavier build, who despised so slender a stripling.
He would rather be alone than join their company, and would not compete with them in any of their sports, so that, when his absence from the arena was noticed, it was attributed to weakness or cowardice.

These imputations stung him deeply, driving him to brood within himself.

He was never seen in the courtyards or ante-rooms at the palace, nor following in the train of the Prince, as was the custom with the youthful nobles.

The servility of the court angered and disgusted him; the eagerness of strong men to carry a cushion or fetch a dog annoyed him.
There were those who observed this absence from the crowd in the ante-rooms.