In the first place, if I am not mistaken, he is a little inclined to be conceited." "Of all the men that I know intimately," said the archdeacon, "Arabin is, in my opinion, the most free from any taint of self-conceit.

His fault is that he's too diffident." "Perhaps so," said the lady; "only I must own I did not find it out this evening." Nothing further was said about him.

Dr.Grantly thought that his wife was abusing Mr.Arabin merely because he had praised him, and Mrs.Grantly knew that it was useless arguing for or against any person in favour of or in opposition to whom the archdeacon had already pronounced a strong opinion.
In truth, they were both right.

Mr.Arabin was a diffident man in social intercourse with those whom he did not intimately know; when placed in situations which it was his business to fill, and discussing matters with which it was his duty to be conversant, Mr.Arabin was from habit brazen-faced enough.

When standing on a platform in Exeter Hall, no man would be less mazed than he by the eyes of the crowd before him, for such was the work which his profession had called on him to perform; but he shrank from a strong expression of opinion in general society, and his doing so not uncommonly made it appear that he considered the company not worth the trouble of his energy.