But I am bound to say that Mr Crosbie did not habitually
proclaim the fact in any offensive manner; nor in becoming a swell
had he become altogether a bad fellow. It was not to be expected
that a man who was petted at Sebright's should carry himself in the
Allington drawing-room as would Johnny Eames, who had never been
petted by any one but his mother. And this fraction of a hero of ours
had other advantages to back him, over and beyond those which fashion
had given him. He was a tall, well-looking man, with pleasant eyes
and an expressive mouth,--a man whom you would probably observe in
whatever room you might meet him. And he knew how to talk, and had
in him something which justified talking. He was no butterfly or
dandy, who flew about in the world's sun, warmed into prettiness
by a sunbeam. Crosbie had his opinion on things,--on politics, on
religion, on the philanthropic tendencies of the age, and had read
something here and there as he formed his opinion. Perhaps he might
have done better in the world had he not been placed so early in life
in that Whitehall public office.
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