He had not fought his own way in life for nothing, and he knew all the value of a cold head and dogged self-assurance.
Nothing but this robust Americanism and his strong will carried him safely through the snares and pitfalls of Mrs.Lee's society, where rivals and enemies beset him on every hand.

He was little better than a schoolboy, when he ventured on their ground, but when he could draw them over upon his own territory of practical life he rarely failed to trample on his assailants.
It was this practical sense and cool will that won over Mrs.Lee, who was woman enough to assume that all the graces were well enough employed in decorating her, and it was enough if the other sex felt her superiority.

Men were valuable only in proportion to their strength and their appreciation of women.

If the senator had only been strong enough always to control his temper, he would have done very well, but his temper was under a great strain in these times, and his incessant effort to control it in politics made him less watchful in private life.
Mrs.Lee's tacit assumption of superior refinement irritated him, and sometimes made him show his teeth like a bull-dog, at the cost of receiving from Mrs.Lee a quick stroke in return such as a well-bred tortoise-shell cat administers to check over-familiarity; innocent to the eye, but drawing blood.

One evening when he was more than commonly out of sorts, after sitting some time in moody silence, he roused himself, and, taking up a book that lay on her table, he glanced at its title and turned over the leaves.