He became a
magistrate in his county; but he would not interest himself with the
price of a good yoke of bullocks, as did Mr. Justice Shallow,--nor
did he ever care how a score of ewes went at any fair. There is no
harder life than this. Here and there we may find a man who has so
trained himself that day after day he can devote his mind without
compulsion to healthy pursuits, who can induce himself to work,
though work be not required from him for any ostensible object, who
can save himself from the curse of misusing his time, though he has
for it no defined and necessary use; but such men are few, and are
made of better metal than was Mr. Maule. He became an idler, a man of
luxury, and then a spendthrift. He was now hardly beyond middle life,
and he assumed for himself the character of a man of taste. He loved
music, and pictures, and books, and pretty women. He loved also good
eating and drinking; but conceived of himself that in his love for
them he was an artist, and not a glutton. He had married early, and
his wife had died soon.
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