So rapidly he aged in knowledge of all undercurrents that he passed into full maturity without a comprehension of the change.

It is said that some Indians teach their children to swim, not by repeated gentle lessons, but by throwing them into a deep stream recklessly, saving them only at the last moment.

So had some power hurled Grant Harlson into the black waters, and he had not drowned, and had taken rank among strong swimmers.
It is, as I have said, difficult to write intelligently of this portion of this man's life.

I want to do him justice, for I have always cared for him; yet, from the conventional point of view, at least, nothing can excuse his lapse at this one time.

He should have continued starving, I suppose, as have so many others, and have either died or won, as they did, instead of tasting all that is denied, and gaining much knowledge of the world, of much use in the future, all at the expense, perhaps, of that purity attaching to certain ignorances, as much in the man as the woman, since between the sexes all things are relative.
There were enough odd things in this most odd career.