As it was, for such a clever fellow Tyson had displayed stupidity that was almost ridiculous.

For nobody ever denied that he was a clever fellow, that he could have been anything that he liked; in fact, he had been most things already.

Anything he liked--except a country gentleman.

The country gentleman, like the poet, is born, not made; and it was a question if Tyson had ever been a gentleman at all.

He had all the accidents of the thing, but not its substance, its British stability and reserve.