"I am over sixty years of age," said Sir Timothy, coldly, "and the
ordeal before me is a very severe one, as you must be well aware. I
must take the risk of course, but the less said about the matter the
better."

Dr. Blundell had always regarded Sir Timothy Crewys as a commonplace
contradictory gentleman, beset by prejudices which belonged properly
to an earlier generation, and of singularly narrow sympathies and
interests. He believed him to be an upright man according to his
lights, which were not perhaps very brilliant lights after all; but he
knew him to be one whom few people found it possible to like, partly
on account of his arrogance, which was excessive; and partly on
account of his want of consideration for the feelings of others, which
arose from lack of perception.

People are disliked more often for a bad manner than for a bad heart.
The one is their private possession--the other they obtrude on their
acquaintance.

Sir Timothy's heart was not bad, and he cared less for being liked
than for being respected. He was the offspring of a _mésalliance_; and
greatly over-estimating the importance in which his family was held,
he imagined he would be looked down upon for this mischance, unless he
kept people at a distance and in awe of him. The idea was a foolish
one, no doubt, but then Sir Timothy was not a wise man; on the
contrary, his lifelong determination to keep himself loftily apart
from his fellow-men had resulted in an almost extraordinary ignorance
of the world he lived in--a world which Sir Timothy regarded as a wild
and misty place, peopled largely and unnecessarily with savages and