The secret of this endurance lay perhaps in his unconsciousness that he was in the saddle at all.

It was as much his natural seat as office stools to other mortals.

He made no capital out of errantry, his temperament being far too like his red-gold hair, which people compared to flames, consuming all before them.

His vices were patent; too incurable an optimism; an admiration for beauty such as must sometimes have caused him to forget which woman he was most in love with; too thin a skin; too hot a heart; hatred of humbug, and habitual neglect of his own interest.

Unmarried, and with many friends, and many enemies, he kept his body like a sword-blade, and his soul always at white heat.
That one who admitted to having taken part in five wars should be mixing in a by-election in the cause of Peace, was not so inconsistent as might be supposed; for he had always fought on the losing side, and there seemed to him at the moment no side so losing as that of Peace.