nervous. He would walk the
room in agony, give orders to have the tailor sent for, and then
immediately countermand the same. His shoes for fifty years were of one
pattern; and when he took them off they were put in one place behind a
door, and woe to the servant who accidentally displaced them. He hung
his old three-cornered hat on one peg at his house, and when he attended
the meetings of the Royal Society he had a peg in the hall known as
"Cavendish's peg." If, through accident, it was taken by some member
before his arrival, he would stop, look at the occupied peg, and then
turn on his heel, and go back to his house. When he went to the
meetings, he walked in the middle of the street, never on the sidewalk;
and he invariably took the same route. Upon reaching the steps leading
to the rooms, he would stop, hesitate, put his hand on the door-handle,
and look about timidly, and sometimes return at a rapid pace.

His cane, which he carried for fifty years, he placed upright in his
left boot, which he took off at the door, covering his foot with a
slipper. Once inside the rooms of the Royal Society, and surrounded by
the most distinguished men of England and the world, he became
excessively shy, and read his wonderful papers in an awkward manner.
Applause of any kind he could not bear; and if in conversation any one
praised his researches or papers, he would turn away abruptly, as if
highly indignant. If he was appealed to as authority upon any point, he
would dart away, and perhaps quit the hall for the evening. This man of
great genius and vast acquirements was incapable of understanding or
enduring praise or flattery. He sought in every possible way to escape
recognition or notice, listened attentively to conversation, but seldom
asked questions; never spoke of himself, or of what he had accomplished
in the world of science.

Cavendish was a man possessed of vast wealth, and, when he died, he was
the richest bank-owner in all England.

"At the age of forty, a large accession came to his fortune. His income
already exceeded his expenditure. Pecuniary transactions were his
aversion. Other matters occupied his attention. The legacy was therefore
paid in to his bankers. It was safe there, and he gave it no more heed.
One of the firm sought to see him at Clapham. In answer to the
inquiries of the footman as to his Business, the banker replied to see
Mr. Cavendish personally. 'You must wait, then,' responded the servant,