True, he was but young when he learned the rites, but that he was not still a member of the order was only because his ambition was dominant and his tastes had changed.
That his will was strong, that he had tastes to develop, was because of the blood which filled his veins, and of nothing else.

He had gone with a current absolutely, though swimming and always keeping his head above water until he swam ashore.

Yet, as told in the beginning of this chapter, he always said to me that he did not regret this experience of abandonment.

And he became a man seeking place and money.
He liked to visit his old home, and was faithful to his old crony, his aging mother, still; and, for a time, after any of these sojourns among the birds and squirrels and in the forest, he would be distrait and preoccupied with something; but all this would wear off, and then would come the press for place and pelf again.

He was not entirely unsuccessful, and finally he married, as a prospering young man should--married a woman with money and presence for a hostess, and with traits to make her potent.