He was fond of his profession and intended to remain in the army as long as he could.

He desired to marry and beget a family, and retire, when set free from soldiering, to his country seat, and there perform blamelessly the congenial role of a village squire, until called upon to join the respectable corpses in the Random vault.

Not that he was a saint or ever could be one.

Neither black nor white, he was simply gray, being an ordinary mixture of good and bad.

As theology has provided no hereafter for gray people, it is hard to imagine where the bulk of humanity will go.