at kind of intimacy with another man which justifies
and renders necessary mutual freedom of intercourse in all the
affairs of life. And yet he was possessed of warm affections, was by
no means misanthropic in his nature, and would, in truth, have given
much to be able to be free and jocund as are other men. He lacked
the power that way, rather than the will. To himself it seemed to be
a weakness in him rather than a strength that he should always be
silent, always guarded, always secret and dark. He had lamented it
as an acknowledged infirmity;--as a man grieves that he should be
short-sighted, or dull of hearing; but at the age of sixty he had
taken no efficient steps towards curing himself of the evil, and had
now abandoned all idea of any such cure.

Whether he had been, upon the whole, fortunate or unfortunate in life
shall be left to the reader's judgment. But he certainly had not been
happy. He had suffered cruel disappointments; and a disappointment
will crush the spirit worse than a realised calamity. There is no
actual misfortune in not being Lord Mayor of London;--but when a man
has set his heart upon the place, has worked himself into a position
within a few feet of the Mansion House, has become alderman with
the mayoralty before him in immediate rotation, he will suffer more
at being passed over by the liverymen than if he had lost half his
fortune. Now Sir Thomas Underwood had become Solicitor-General in his
profession, but had never risen to the higher rank or more assured
emoluments of other legal offices.

We will not quite trace our Meleager back to his egg, but we will
explain that he was the only son of a barrister of moderate means,
who put him to the Bar, and who died leaving little or nothing behind
him. The young barrister had an only sister, who married an officer
in the army, and who had passed all her latter life in distant
countries to which her husband had been called by the necessity of
living on the income which his profession gave him. As a Chancery
barrister, Mr. Underwood,--our Sir Thomas,--had done well, living on
the income he made, marrying at thirty-five, going into Parliament
at forty-five, becoming Solicitor-General at fifty,--and ceasing
to hold that much-desired office four months after his appointment.
Such cessation, however, arising from political causes, is no
disappointment to a man. It will doubtless be the case that a man so
placed will regret the weakness of his party,