True, there were occasions on which the thought of home allured him.

The idea of marriage with some woman who loved him would spring like a beacon out of the night in moments of depression.

Other men found a permanent abiding-place and were content therewith; why not he?
But he only played with the notion.

It did not seriously attract him.

He was not a marrying man, and, as he had said to Larpent, the woman did not exist who could hold him.