He combined, to an admirable degree, the man of the world and the sportsman; he had an air that was beyond rubies.

He was elegant without being effeminate, arrogant without being conceited, indifferent without being blase.

He had learnt, at Eton, and at the knee of a rich and charming mother, that to be crude was the unforgivable sin.

He worshipped the god of good manners and would have made an admirable son of the great Lord Chesterfield.

Finally he was the only man in Saul's who had any "air" at all, and he had already travelled round the world and been introduced by his mother to Royalty at Marienbad.
The only man who could ever have claimed any possible rivalry was Dune, and Dune had seemed determined, until now, to avoid any-thing of the kind.