His life outside the inner circles of his affections was apt to be so militant and so divorced from considerations of amity, that as a matter of natural reaction he became inclined to exaggerate the importance of small objections, little reproaches, slight criticisms from his real friends.

Such criticisms seemed to bring into a sphere he would have liked to keep solely for the mutual reliance of loving kindness, something of the hard utilitarianism of the world at large.

In consequence he gradually came to choose the line of least resistance, to avoid instinctively even the slightly disagreeable.

Perhaps for this reason he was never entirely sincere with those he loved.

He showed enthusiasm over any plan suggested by them, for the reason that he never dared offer a merely problematical anticipation.