Tulpian's favour; he has no doubleness towards Felicia; there is no
sneering or backbiting obverse to his ecstatic admiration. He is very
well off in the world, and cherishes no unsatisfied ambition that could
feed design and direct flattery. As you perceive, he has had the
education and other advantages of a gentleman without being conscious of
marked result, such as a decided preference for any particular ideas or
functions: his mind is furnished as hotels are, with everything for
occasional and transient use. But one cannot be an Englishman and
gentleman in general: it is in the nature of things that one must have
an individuality, though it may be of an often-repeated type. As Hinze
in growing to maturity had grown into a particular form and expression
of person, so he necessarily gathered a manner and frame of speech which
made him additionally recognisable. His nature is not tuned to the pitch
of a genuine direct admiration, only to an attitudinising deference
which does not fatigue itself with the formation of real judgments. All
human achievement must be wrought down to this spoon-meat--this mixture
of other persons' washy opinions and his own flux of reverence for what
is third-hand, before Hinze can find a relish for it.

He has no more leading characteristic than the desire to stand well with
those who are justly distinguished; he has no base admirations, and you
may know by his entire presentation of himself, from the management of
his hat to the angle at which he keeps his right foot, that he aspires
to correctness. Desiring to behave becomingly and also to make a figure
in dialogue, he is only like the bad artist whose picture is a failure.
We may pity these ill-gifted strivers, but not pretend that their works
are pleasant to behold. A man is bound to know something of his own
weight and muscular dexterity, and the puny athlete is called foolish
before he is seen to be thrown. Hinze has not the stuff in him to be at
once agreeably conversational and sincere, and he has got himself up to