abstraction from conversational topics. He appeared, indeed, to be
preoccupied with a sense of his exquisite cleanliness, clapped his hands
together and rubbed them frequently, straightened his back, and even
opened his mouth and closed it again with a slight snap, apparently for
no other purpose than the confirmation to himself of his own powers in
that line. These are innocent exercises, but they are not such as give
weight to a man's personality. Sometimes Spike's mind, emerging from its
preoccupation, burst forth in a remark delivered with smiling zest; as,
that he did like to see gravel walks well rolled, or that a lady should
always wear the best jewellery, or that a bride was a most interesting
object; but finding these ideas received rather coldly, he would relapse
into abstraction, draw up his back, wrinkle his brows longitudinally,
and seem to regard society, even including gravel walks, jewellery, and
brides, as essentially a poor affair. Indeed his habit of mind was
desponding, and he took melancholy views as to the possible extent of
human pleasure and the value of existence. Especially after he had made
his fortune in the cotton manufacture, and had thus attained the chief
object of his ambition--the object which had engaged his talent for
order and persevering application. For his easy leisure caused him much
_ennui_. He was abstemious, and had none of those temptations to sensual
excess which fill up a man's time first with indulgence and then with
the process of getting well from its effects. He had not, indeed,
exhausted the sources of knowledge, but here again his notions of human
pleasure were narrowed by his want of appetite; for though he seemed
rather surprised at the consideration that Alfred the Great was a
Catholic, or that apart from the Ten Commandments any conception of
moral conduct had occurred to mankind, he was not stimulated to further
inquiries on these remote matters. Yet he aspired to what he regarded as
intellectual society, willingly entertained beneficed clergymen, and
bought the books he heard spoken of, arranging them carefully on the