"He may do what he chooses," said Wilmot; "he is never in the wrong." The judgment of the world became still more favourable to Dorset when he had been sobered by time and marriage.

His graceful manners, his brilliant conversation, his soft heart, his open hand, were universally praised.
No day passed, it was said, in which some distressed family had not reason to bless his name.

And yet, with all his goodnature, such was the keenness of his wit that scoffers whose sarcasm all the town feared stood in craven fear of the sarcasm of Dorset.

All political parties esteemed and caressed him; but politics were not much to his taste.

Had he been driven by necessity to exert himself, he would probably have risen to the highest posts in the state; but he was born to rank so high and wealth so ample that many of the motives which impel men to engage in public affairs were wanting to him.