He was altogether above the respectable average; quite another affair.

He wasn't a professional charmer--far from it, and the effect he produced depended a good deal on the state of his nerves and his spirits.

When not in the right mood he could fall as low as any one, saved only by his looking at such hours rather like a demoralised prince in exile.

But if he cared or was interested or rightly challenged--just exactly rightly it had to be--then one felt his cleverness and his distinction.

Those qualities didn't depend, in him, as in so many people, on his not committing or exposing himself.