out a book he moved about like a shadow lost in some dim dreamland of echoes.
Everyone knew he was a scholar, and his thoughts had once or twice rung out to the world clear and loud as a trumpet-note through the oracles of the Press. But in society he was shy, awkward, and uncouth of speech, quite unable to marshal his thoughts, deserted by his memory, abashed before his own silences, and startled by his own words. Any fool who could talk about the legs of a horse or the height of a thermometer was Prospero to this social Caliban.
He felt that before the fine instincts of women his infirmity was especially conspicuous, and he drifted into misogyny, through bashfulness and pride; and yet misogyny was incompatible with his scheme of life and his ambition. He felt himself to be worthy of the full diapason of home life; he desired to be as other men were, besides being something more—
Kακὸν γυναῖκες' ἀλλ᾿ ὅμως, ὦ δημόται,
Oὐκ ἐστιγ ὸικειν οἰκίαν ἄνευ κακοῦ.
Kαὶ γὰρ τὸ γῆμαι, καὶ τὸ μὴ γῆμαι κακόν.
