He could not have sat in that arm-chair much, the surface was too smooth.

He could not have come there much at any time, for, though the carpet was faded, there was no well-worn passage from the threshold to the hearth.

As far as she could make out he came there for no earthly purpose but to change his boots before going upstairs to Edith.
The bookcase told the same story.

It held histories and standard works inherited from Majendie's father; the works of Dickens, and Thackeray, and Hardy, read over and over again in the days when he had time for reading; several poets whom, by his own confession, he could not have read in any circumstances.

One Meredith, partly uncut, testified to an honest effort and a baulked accomplishment.