It was said that on more than one occasion he had nursed the suffering and the dying in sad Petershof, and, with all the sorrowful tenderness worthy of a loving mother, had helped them to take their leave of life.

But these were only rumours, and there was nothing in Robert Allitsen's ordinary bearing to justify such talk.

So the foolish people who, for the sake of making themselves peculiar, revived these unlikely fictions, were speedily ridiculed and reduced to silence.

And the Disagreeable Man remained the Disagreeable Man, with a clean record for unamiability.
He lived a life apart from others.

Most of his time was occupied in photography, or in the use and study of the microscope, or in chemistry.
His photographs were considered to be most beautiful.