l, was moderate at the table and led a
regular life--that he had, in fact, all the virtues that are usually
accounted English? Or have I in the least succeeded in conveying that
he was all those things and had all those virtues? He certainly was them
and had them up to the last months of his life. They were the things
that one would set upon his tombstone. They will, indeed, be set upon
his tombstone by his widow.

And have I, I wonder, given the due impression of how his life was
portioned and his time laid out? Because, until the very last, the
amount of time taken up by his various passions was relatively small. I
have been forced to write very much about his passions, but you have to
consider--I should like to be able to make you consider--that he rose
every morning at seven, took a cold bath, breakfasted at eight, was
occupied with his regiment from nine until one; played polo or cricket
with the men when it was the season for cricket, till tea-time.
Afterwards he would occupy himself with the letters from his
land-steward or with the affairs of his mess, till dinner-time. He
would dine and pass the evening playing cards, or playing billiards with
Leonora or at social functions of one kind or another. And the greater
part of his life was taken up by that--by far the greater part of his
life. His love-affairs, until the very end, were sandwiched in at
odd moments or took place during the social evenings, the dances and
dinners. But I guess I have made it hard for you, O silent listener, to
get that impression. Anyhow, I hope I have not given you the idea that
Edward Ashburnham was a pathological case. He wasn't. He was just a
normal man and very much of a sentimentalist. I dare say the quality
of his youth, the nature of his mother's influence, his ignorances, the
crammings that he received at the hands of army coaches--I dare say that
all these excellent influences upon his adolescence were very bad for
him. But we all have to put up with that sort of thing and no doubt it
is very bad for all of us. Nevertheless, the outline of Edward's
life was an outline perfectly normal of the life of a hard-working,
sentimental and efficient professional man.

That question of first impressions has always bothered me a good
deal--but quite academically. I mean that, from time to time I have
wondered whether it were or were not best to trust to one's first
impressions in dealing with people. But I never had anybody to deal with