I should not mind their not being true, if they were only characteristic." "By which you mean," said a gentleman who was sitting next him, "that you don't care about veracity, only you can't stand dullness." "Not at all," said Arthur, quickly.

"Veracity is not the question in gossip at all.

It is all hearsay.

You have not to judge of the actual truth of a scandalous story, but you have to judge of the probable truth of it, and if it is obviously uncharacteristic it is wrong to repeat it.

It becomes scandal then, and not till then." When he was living in London, which was, for the time being, his home, he lived a regular life, combining more reading with a sociable life than many people would have thought possible.